



6oiaeti Classics 



THE LITTLE CORSICAN 

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 

BY 

ESSE V. HATHAWAY 



WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 



CHICAGO NEW YORK 

RAND McNALLY & COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 







n 
» 







NAPOLEON BONAPARTE— THE LITTLE CORSICAN 

One of the most brilliant generals of history, at whose touch crowns 
crumbled, beggjars reigned and kingdoms vanished 




The acknowledged classics of English literature 
are many, and the number of those works which are 
worthy of being ranked among the classics grows 
from year to year. Whosoever would know the best 
that has been written in our tongue, can scarcely 
begin his acquaintance too soon in his own life after he 
has learned to read. Nor can he be too careful about 
the new members he admits to the circle of his book 
friendships. 

The gardener may have prepared his ground with 
scrupulous and rigid care, but unless he follows his 
anting with unremitting vigilance, the labor of 
T paration will have been in vain. A few days of 
gleet and the garden will be smothered in weeds. 
Profitable knowledge of the best in our literature must 
be sought with hke vigilance and patience. The taste 
for it should be implanted early and when estabhshed 
must be cultivated and maintained with constancy. 
It should also be intelligently adapted to increasing 
years and widening experience. 

The first few books in the Golden Classics have 
been chosen as the foundation for a permanent and more 
extended series. They have been taken from the writ- 
ings of acknowledged Masters of the English tongue. 
Among these immortals are Irving, Dickens, Ruskin, 
Longfellow, and Goldsmith; no names in English lit- 
erature are more beloved and honored. 

More vital even than their great worth as hterature, 
these selections have, in eminent degree, that wonder- 



;^-' 



viii INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES 

ful quality of the works of human genius which 
stimulates the imagination of the reader, refines his 
taste, broadens and deepens his love of letters, inspires 
him with generous sympathy for all that is uplifting, 
and quickens his aversion toward all that is trashy 
or in any way unworthy. 

It is true in literature as it is in money that the 
truest capacity to detect the counterfeit is intimate, 
familiar knowledge of the genuine. It is not enough 
merely to know that there are works in oui literature 
which have proven their immortal, classic quality, but 
equally as important to be able to name some or all 
of them. It is not enough even to be able to say that 
one has read them. They must be, so to speak, men- 
tally absorbed. They must sink deep into and be 
assimilated by our intellectual life, and so become 
a part of our being. By just so much as any genera- 
tion accomplishes this, and makes itself affectionately 
familiar with all that is possible of that literature which 
has crystallized into immortality; by just so much it has 
raised the plane on which the next generation must 
begin its career, and thus has contributed toward the 
uplifting evolution of humanity. 

These Golden Classics are meant to put the means 
of rising to this plane within easy reach; opening a 
path which every aspiring reader may follow in full 
confidence that he will not be led astray. 




THE necessity for the study of biog- 
raphy is acknowledged by educators. 
We all have something in common 
with great men, and the earlier this fact 
can be brought home to a child, the 
earlier will his mind be filled with the 
possibilities which his own life holds. 
With this sympathy aroused, the history 
which every great man's life carries with 
it is changed from pages of dry facts to a 
story full of reality and living interests. 

In writing "Napoleon" for this series, the 
attempt has been made to bring Napoleon's 
boyhood life in touch with that of the 
young people for whose reading it is 
intended ; to make them feel that he liked 
and disliked many of the same things that 
they do, and that he was actuated by many 
of the same boyish resolves that they are. 

If this attempt has been successfully 
carried out, it will follow that Napoleon, 
in his later life, is not only the maker of 
kingdoms and the brilliant general of 
history, but also a man who lived, enjoyed, 
and suffered as do other men. The wealth 
of history centered in his life will have con 

IX 




^ 



Napoleon 




sequently a warmth of human interest 
which the ordinary statement of historical 
facts lacks, but which is necessary to make 
them stand out definitely in the student's 
mind. 

But the primary object in creating this 
bond of sympathy with Napoleon is to 
arouse an enthusiasm for his energy, per- 
severance, and unconquerable will, without 
which the genius of the great general 
would have been useless. These traits 
have been emphasized partly through 
intention and partly because the meteoric 
swiftness of his public life leaves no doubt 
that these characteristics predominated in 
him. 

The Little Corsican's life story told 
slowly and in several volumes is full 
of exciting interest; brought within the 
bounds of this small book it was necessary 
to crowd one wonderful achievement close 
upon another, with a rapidity which may 
be mistaken for an attempt to dazzle 
and mislead a child with Napoleon's great- 
ness. But biography, to hold a child's 
interest, must be short, without discussion 
of motives or morals. In consequence 
many good as well as bad traits in Napo- 
leon's life are here left unremarked. His 



The Little Corsican 



XI 



chief fault — his towering ambition — was 
displayed in matters which were too intri- 
cate for a child's understanding. If the 
simple telling of this story, fact upon fact, 
should thrill the small readers with enthusi- 
asm for the great man, and strengthen or 
arouse in them the desire to use their time 
and strength with his energy and perse- 
verance, this book will have accomplished 
what I most desire. 

Esse V. Hathaway. 
Ottawa, Ohio, September, igo^. 



^ 




N 




Chapter I 

A Boy's Trials 

THE sun was shining brilliantly. The 
cool sea breeze, sweeping in from 
the Mediterranean, caught up the 
fragrance of 
many flowers 
and the glad ^^ 
song of birds 
to bear them 
through the 
avenues, shad- 
ed with great 
chestnut trees, 
to the rugged 
snow-capped 



The house ^n Ajaccto, Corsica, tn which Napoleon 
was horn. 




Napoleon 



mountains in the distance. It was the 
fifteenth of August, 1769, a fete day in 
the village of Ajaccio, and, as the good 
people worshiped in the dark old cathedral, 
and the sun stood nearly overhead, a tiny 
boy awakened to life in a bare, yellowish- 
gray house which stood opposite a small 
park in the little Corsican town. 

His baby eyes opened upon a time of 
trouble in his island home. The Corsicans, 
who had long been noted for their fierce 
patriotism, were at last crushed by the 
French. Their beloved island, drenched 
with the blood of its brave defenders, was 
about to pass into the hands of the enemy. 
Within the home of the little stranger all 
was dark and foreboding. His father, a 
patriot leader and friend of Paoli, the 
great Corsican general, was looked upon 
with suspicion by the French ; his mother, 
who had followed the army wherever it 
went, sharing all its misfortunes and dis- 
comforts, was full of grief and misgivings. 
The future did not look promising for the 
little Corsican. 




A carelessly dressed, curious looking 
little figure carae walking slowly down the 
shore from Ajaccio. The head, with its 
straggling locks, was too large for the small 
body and spindling legs, and the deep-set 
eyes looked steadily ahead with a fearless, 
commanding expression in their gray-blue 
depths. It was our Corsican baby. Seven 
years had passed since that summer day 
when he first blinked his eyes at sunny 
Ajaccio, and some of the warlike, gloomy 
period of his country's history must have 
left its stamp on his character, for he had 
never been so light-hearted and happy as 
the other Ajaccio boys and girls. 

Two years after his birth he had been 
taken, with his baby sister Eliza, to the old 
Cathedral and was there christened Napo- 
leon Bonaparte. All through the years of 
his babyhood the dark-faced little Napo- 
leon made life miserable for his nurses with 
his fierce temper and stubborn will. At six 
he was sent to a dame's school, and there 
the other children laughed at him because 
his stockings were always hanging down 




4 



Napoleon 



^ 



over his shoe-tops, and because he spent 
his playtime with the Httle girls of the 
school. 

To-day he walked along by the sea, under 
the dazzling sky, to a little grotto which 
he had discovered some months before and 
which his uncle, Joey Fesch, a boy only a 
few years older than Napoleon, had cleared 
of rubbish and arranged for his little 
nephew. With his visits to this cave 
Napoleon began the practice, which he 
continued when he grew older, of seeking 
some place where he could be entirely alone 
and where none dared intrude. Even now 
his right to this grotto was respected, and 
that respect had been made sure by several 
rousing fights with his brother Joseph, who 
was older than Napoleon, but always his 
inferior in will and action. 

When the grotto was reached the boy 
stood in the entrance, looking across the 
sea, his hands clasped behind him and his 
eyes wide open, as if seeing the far-away 
Italian country from which his father's 
people had come long years before, carry- 



-==-% 




ing with them to their new home httle else 
but a great pride in an old and noble name. 
There was a story of a great estate to 
which Napoleon knew they had some right, 
for his father was always trying to reclaim 
it but, beyond furnishing foundations for 
numerous air castles, the claim never 
amounted to anything. It must have been 
some such great daydream that now held 
the quaint little figure so quiet, while the 
cool wind sent the saucy little whitecaps 
dancing over the tops of the waves at his 
feet, for so gravely dignified and motion- 
less did he stand that he easily might have 
been taken for a wise old elf who had 
dropped from his craggy mountain home 

behind. 

All at once there was a great shout, and 
Eliza and her little playmate, Panoria, 
rushed from the rocks toward Napoleon. 
If they had expected to frighten or to 
startle him they were disappointed, for he 
turned upon them quietly, though with an 
angry flash in his eyes. Before he could 
say anything, however, some one called, 




ff= 




Napoleon 



"Eliza!" and their nurse came down the 
path with a basket of pears in her hand. 

''Come, EHza," she said, "take this fruit 
home. It is for your uncle, the Canon." 

Panoria gave an exclamation of delight, 
and reached for some of the fruit as the 
nurse came near, but Eliza grasped her 
hand and stopped her. 

"You must not touch that!" she ex- 
claimed. "It is my uncle's." 

"Well, what if it is?" said Panoria. 
" Your uncle can't eat all that, and he must 
be a funny man not to let you touch his 
old fruit. I dare you to take some!" 

"No, no, Panoria," broke in the nurse; 
"she must not touch it. Take it home, 
Eliza." And the nurse passed on, while 
the two little girls went, half quarreling, 
half laughing, down the path toward the 
town. 

Napoleon followed them more slowly, 
and entered the house just in time to see a 
flutter of dress skirts through the open 
window of the dining room, and to hear a 
smothered, frightened giggle. The basket 





The Little Corsican 



of fruit was standing on the sideboard, 
and as Napoleon ran after the girls he saw 
it and stopped short. Part of the fruit 
was gone. The little girls had taken it, just 
in fun of course, but what would Uncle 
Lucien say? This uncle was the benefac- 
tor of the Bonaparte family, and the chil- 
dren had been taught to look upon him as 
a great man who was to be treated with 
the utmost respect. And now, just as luck 
would have it, while Napoleon stood star- 
ing at the fruit, the door opened and Uncle 
Lucien himself came in. He looked at the 
boy's confused face and then at the pears. 

"Napoleon," he exclaimed sternly, as he 
placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, "can 
it be possible that you have taken my 
fruit?" 

" No, tmcle," answered Napoleon quickly. 
" I did not touch it. It was " — he stopped 
short. If he told, Eliza would be punished. 
Tell on a girl ? No, not he, and he straight- 
ened his slender little figure, while his dark 
face took on that stubborn look which his 
friends had learned to know and dread. 



=1^ 



8 



Napoleon 



His uncle saw the child's mouth shut 
^1 tightly, and knowing that it was useless to 
try to force him to tell, the good Canon 
said gently : 

''Napoleon, I do not care for your hav- 
ing the fruit, but why did you take it with- 
out asking me for it?" 

"But I did not take it," the boy an- 
swered. "It was gone when I came into 
the room." 

His uncle looked at him in surprise. 

"Is it possible. Napoleon, that you 
would tell me a falsehood? There is no 
one else here and the fruit must have 
been taken by you. You know it is not 
the fruit that I care for, child; it is your 
deception. Come, confess, and we will drop 
the matter." 

Napoleon's only answer was to shut his 
lips more closely, as he shook his head and 
looked fearlessly at the Canon. The latter 
growing angry at the boy's apparent deceit 
and stubbornness, decided to tell the story 
of the stolen pears to Napoleon's father. 

Later on, when the family were all gath- 



The Little Corsican 



ered for the evening meal, Napoleon was 
called before his father and questioned 
again. The boy, angry, and with a big 
ache in his little heart because they would 
not believe him, refused to say anything 
except that he did not take the fruit. 
Each of his brothers and sisters were then 
questioned, but all declared they knew 
nothing about the matter. Napoleon 
looked hopefully toward Eliza, but the 
little girl, frightened at all the trouble 
she, had caused by her mischievousness, 
dropped her eyes and with a flushed face 
said she knew nothing. Threats and per- 
suasions failing to produce any effect on the 
boy, he was ordered to stand at the end of 
the dining room while the family finished 
their dinner, and, if he had not confessed 
by that time, he was to be whipped. 

After the meal was finished, the Canon 
and Napoleon's father turned to the boy 
standing with his hands back of him, and 
his eyes looking defiance at them. Uncle 
Lucien tried again to coax the truth from 
him, for he was fond of the queer little 



r^ 




want 
ished if it could be helped in any way. 

At last, however, with patience ex- 
hausted, and angry at the boy's vStubborn- 
ness, Charles Bonaparte whipped his son 
severely. Napoleon made no cry, but he 
clinched his little fists and his eyes turned 
almost black with their sullen look of anger. 
The Canon sighed as he looked at the 
defiant face. He knew that it was useless 
now to expect a different answer, but the 
boy must be taught a lesson ; that stubborn 
will must learn to obey. And so it was 
decided that Napoleon should be kept on 
bread and water and cheese until he con- 
fessed. 

If Napoleon's mother had been at home 
she might have found some way out of the 
difficulty; for the bo}^ had received his 
unconquerable will from his mother, and 
she understood him better than any one 
else. In truth she was the one in the 
Bonaparte house who, by her unceasing 
energy and common sense, kept the wheels 
moving for that rather shiftless family. 



The Little Corsican 



II 



She had been only fifteen when Charles 
Bonaparte married her, a beautiful, tall, 
commanding Corsican girl, with the musi- 
cal name of Laetitia Ramolino. Unfor- 
tunately for Napoleon she was visiting 
some relatives at the time of his trouble, 
and did not return until the third day of his 
punishment. During those three days 
Napoleon spent his time wandering over 
the mountains, 
trying to trade 
his bread and 
cheese for that 
of the shepherd 
boys, which he 
thought better 
than his. 

As soon as 
Madame Bona- 
parte returned, 
she determined 
to get to the 
bottom of Napoleon's disgrace. Under- 
standing the proud., fearless nature of the 
boy, she was absolutely certain that he 



=^ 




Napoleon trying to trade his bread and cheese 
for that of the shepherd boys." 




had not taken the Canon's fruit, but 
she was also certain that he knew who 
had. She called Napoleon to her, but 
just as she began talking to him, little 
Panoria came rushing breathlessly into the 
house. 

"Oh, oh. Napoleon! I'm so sorry!" she 
cried excitedly. ''He did not take the 
pears," turning to Madame Bonaparte ; '' it 
was Eliza and I. I dared Eliza to do it, 
and then I went away and never knew that 
Napoleon had been whipped, and had 
nothing to eat. Oh, Eliza, you ought to 
be ashamed ! Uncle Joey just told me and 
I ran all the way here." And the little 
girl broke out sobbing, as the children and 
Madame Bonaparte looked at her in aston- 
ishment. 

Napoleon accepted his justification as 
quietly as he had his punishment. In his 
heart he did not feel that matters were 
very much better for him. He ought to 
have been believed m the first place, he 
told himself proudly in his grotto, and, in 
the days that followed, he carried himself 



^5^ 



The Little Corsican 



13 



very gravely through all the petting and 
rejoicing of his family over his bravery. 

There was much of interest in the little 
coast town of Ajaccio, for the gulf on which 
the town was situated formed a safe harbor 
for many ships, and Napoleon soon forgot 
his trouble in listening to the wild stories of 
sea life told him by the sailors. And then, 
there were the shepherd boys. There had 
been a rivalry of long standing between 
them and the boys of Ajaccio. Fights 
were numerous, and so far the mountain 
lads had been victorious. Napoleon shared 
the general feeling, and added to that was 
a private grudge which had originated in 
his long walks, v/hen the shepherd boys tor- 
mented him, and in his bread and cheese 
trade when they treated his offered friend- 
ship with disdain. 

At last Napoleon resolved to pay off all 
old scores. He organized the town boys 
into regular companies, drilled them, sent 
the shepherd lads a challenge, and charged 
up the hill, armed with stones and sticks. 
The first attack ended in disaster for the 



M 



Napoleon 



town boys, who were sent howling down 
the hillside. But Napoleon rallied his 
forces and shamed them into another 
attack. This time the tables were turned 
and the mountain boys were taught so 
severe a lesson that ever after they re- 
spected the rights of the little Napoleon 
and his followers. 




Lonely Days at School 



'^"F^IME was moving on rapidly while all 
J^ these things were happening, and 
Charles Bonaparte began to think 
about the education of his two eldest sons, 
Joseph and Napoleon. Money was very 
scarce in the Bonaparte family, but there 
was old and noble blood in their veins, and 
the children must be sent to a school that 
was suited to their station in life. 

Corsica was now entirely under French 
control, and Charles Bonaparte resolved to 
make application for the admittance of 
Joseph, Napoleon, and Joey Fesch into 
some of the numerous schools in France, 
which were supported by the king and 
where the tuition was free. He finally met 
with success, probably through the efforts 
of the family friend. General de Marboeuf, 
who was governor of Corsica and a man of 
some influence among the French people. 



i6 



Napoleon 



So it was decided that Napoleon was to be 
(^1 sent to a military school at Brienne, while 
Joseph and Joey were to be educated for 
the priesthood. 

In 1778 Napoleon's father was chosen to 
represent the nobility in a meeting which 
was to be held in Versailles, and that gave 
him the opportunity of taking the boys to 
France. They left Corsica December 15, 
1778, the three boys, Joey fifteen,- Joseph 
eleven, and Napoleon only nine, starting 
from home for the first time to go to a land 
where the habits and language of the peo- 
ple differed very much from those of their 
little island. 

Uncle Lucien had already recognized an 
unusual ability in Napoleon, a something 
not to be learned in books, which gave the 
little Corsican lad a decided power over his 
playmates and which compelled his older 
friends to treat him with more respect than 
a child of his years was wont to receive. 
When the little party left Ajaccio that day, 
the Canon, after saying his farewells to the 
others, turned with a sad half smile to 



The Little Corsican 



^7 



Napoleon, and, placing his hand on the 
boy's head, spoke to him seriously about 
what he expected of him in the future. 
Afterward, when the boys were well 
started in their school life, the Canon said 
to their father, that, although Joseph was 
the oldest of the family, Napoleon was the 
real head. 

If the boys had any feeling of sorrow at 
leaving home, it must have been soon 
swallowed up in interest and curiosity in 
the new scenes through which they passed. 
They had run wild over the shore and 
mountains around Ajaccio all their lives. 
Now, for nearly three weeks they traveled 
through a strange country, stopping at 
cities that overawed them with their great 
buildings and long streets crowded with 
people talking an unknown language. It 
soon became apparent to his father that 
Napoleon must have some knowledge of 
French before entering Brienne, and it was 
decided that he should be left with Joseph 
for a time at Autun, where there was a pre- 
paratory school. 



=^ 



i8 



Napoleon 



It was New Year's Day, 1779, when they 
reached the picturesque old town where 
centuries before the Druids and Romans 
had estabHshed schools. The whole place, 
with its crooked streets winding down to 
the river, its dim Cathedral nine hundred 
years old, its walls, gateways, and ruins, 
was full of an old-time mystery and 
grandeur. 

The Bishop of Autun was a friend of 
Charles Bonaparte and he promised to look 
after the boys; but he probably had for- 
gotten his own school days, and what it 
meant to be away from home and alone in 
a strange land, for the boys had a pretty 
lonely time of it. Everything was especi- 
ally hard for Napoleon, who was a queer- 
looking little fellow with his dark Italian 
face and small figure. He pronounced his 
name with a very decided Italian accent, 
and it sounded to the French boys as if 
he said Na-paille-au-nez, which to them 
meant straw in the nose. That was enough 
for the schoolboys, and they nick-named 
the little stranger Straw-nose, a name 




which clung to him throughout his three 
months at Autun, and afterward followed 
him to Brienne. 

His proud, sullen manner brought him 
no friends and the boys soon discovered 
that he had a fiery temper which was 
quickly roused by their taunts concerning 
his Corsican country and its conquest by 
the French. He was not slow in express- 
ing his hatred of the conquerors, although 
surrounded on all sides by them. One day 
after an unusual outbreak against them, 
one of the boys said : 

"Oh, yes, but they were men enough to 
whip you Corsicans." 

"Yes," replied Napoleon, "because they 
were ten to one. If they had numbered 
only four to one they couldn't have done 
it." 

" But you had your great and wonderful 
Paoli," returned the little Frenchman 
tauntingly, for the worship which Napo- 
leon felt for the famous Paoli was another 
source of fun to the boys, who knew they 
could anger the little patriot in a second 



20 



Napoleon 



^ by any disrespectful word concerning the 
i?ir Corsican general, his ideal of a soldier. 

"Ah, yes," sighed Napoleon, "I wish I 
were like him." 

Napoleon worked very hard at Autiin 
and at the end of three months he knew the 
foundations of the French language, could 
use common phrases and write easy exer- 
cises; but the language was hard for him 
and he spoke it with an Italian accent 
which clung to him always, and made his 
French very hard to understand. This 
was a great drawback to him when he went 
to Brienne and caused him to take' his 
walks alone more often, and to make his 
life all the more lonely, especially as his 
easy-going, happy brother Joseph remained 
at Autun. 

The school at Brienne was made up of a 
bare, ugly set of buildings standing in the 
midst of trees and gardens which over- 
looked a little river, while near by was a 
century-old chateau. There were one hun- 
dred and fifty boys in the school, sons of 
noblemen for the greater part, among 




The Little Corsican 




whom it was necessary to have money or 
easy, happy manners to be a favorite. 
Napoleon had no money, and his manner 
was rude for feehng his poverty most 
keenly, he met all advances from the boys, 
both 'good-natured and ill-natured, with 
proud silence or a flash of anger. Here, 
as at Autun, they taunted him with the fall 




The ■military school at Brienne where the young Corsican learned 

the art of war. 

of his country, and the little Frenchmen 
thought it a great joke when the little 
Corsican announced proudly, * ' I hope one 
day to give Corsica her liberty." 

Nor was Napoleon's trouble with his 



mat^ 



22 



Napoleon 



^ 



\ 



schoolmates only. The school was in 
charge of monks who were ignorant, and 
who, seeing that the little stranger was 
without friends, allowed him to be mis- 
treated, while some of them, angered by 
his proud bravery, took a great dislike to 
him. 

One day, not long after entering the 
school, he had been teased until he could 
endure it no longer, and, turning to escape 
from his tormentors, he ran into a room 
where there was a picture of Choiseul, a 
Frenchman who had planned the capture 
of Corsica. The sight was too much for 
the lonely and homesick boy, and, stopping 
before it with hot, angry face, he clinched 
his little fist, and bitterly denounced the 
man and the country that had taken away 
Corsican freedom. One of the instructors 
entering the room, overheard him and had 
him punished severely for the outbreak. 
This but increased his troubles. There 
were many fights when every hand was 
against the little Napoleon, and no one 
dreamed that back of the proud bearing 



r 



The Little Corsican 



23 



there was a small, sensitive heart longing 
for the sight of a home face, or for a friend 
who would understand and not laugh at 

him. 

The one thing which reHeved the loneli- 
ness of his first months at Brienne was a 
garden which was given Napoleon shortly 
after entering the school. Each boy was 
assigned a plot of ground, all for his own, to 
use as he saw fit. As the boys who owned 
the plots next to that given to Napoleon 
neglected and rarely visited them, Napo- 
leon took possession of them also. He 
cleared them of weeds, swept his walks, 
built a little summer house, and before 
long had the most attractive garden in 
the school. 

As soon as the boys to whom the annexed 
plots belonged saw that their gardens were 
so desirable, they immediately rushed 
upon Napoleon to take them from him. 
The little Corsican, bitter and savage from 
being misunderstood, w^as not in a humor 
to stand any foolishness. Armed with 
stones, he flew at the intruders in such a 



24 



Napoleon 



fierce manner that they were glad enough 
to withdraw and leave the boy and his 
garden alone. Here Napoleon spent the 
happiest hours of his first years at Brienne, 
alone with his books or dreaming of far- 
away sunny Ajaccio. 

It was not long before he showed an 
unusual brilliancy in mathematics, and 
held the first place in his class. He was 
also very fond of history, particularly the 
stories of ancient countries and peoples. 
The struggles of the Greeks and Romans 
were to him as the struggle of his own 
little country, and he followed their wars 
for freedom with breathless interest. He 
never cared for languages, and was especi- 
ally poor in Latin. This weakness, to- 
gether with his miserable writing, caused 
him much trouble with the monks. A 
characteristic of his mind was the quick- 
ness with which he grasped a new lesson 
or subject. One of his instructors once 
said of him : 

''When I gave him a lesson he fixed his 
eyes upon me with parted lips; but if I 




repeated anything I had said, his interest 
was gone, as he plainly showed by his man- 
ner. When reproved for this, he would 
answer coldly, I might almost say imperi- 
ously, 'I know it already, sir.' " 

But, with all this, Napoleon was nothing 
but a boy, and a very active, human little 
fellow at that. His pride would not allow 
him to play with the boys who made fun of 
him ; he treated all their games with indif- 
ference, and as the time passed he grew 
more lonely and bitter. At last one warm 
day, as he lay stretched out on a bench in 
his garden, he resolved to run away. But 
where could he go? He had no money or 
friends ; he was small for his age, and spoke 
French so poorly that he would have hard 
work making his way. Still it is probable 
that all this would not have kept him from 
making the attempt had he not thought of 
his home, of the poverty there, of the 
struggle his father had had to place him in 
this school, and, last of all, of his Uncle 
Lucien's confidence in him. The longer 
he thought, however, the more discon- 



26 



Napoleon 



tented and homesick he grew, until finally, 
i?ir rolling over, he reached for his volume of 
Plutarch, and using it for a desk, wrote the 
following letter: 

*'My Father: If you or my pro- 
tectors cannot give me the means of 
sustaining myself more honorably in 
the house where I am, please summon 
me home, and as soon as possible. I 
am tired of poverty and of the sneers 
of the insolent scholars, who are super- 
ior to me only in their fortune; for 
there is not one among them who feels 
one hundredth part of the noble senti- 
ments by which I am animated. Must 
your son, sir, continually be the butt 
of these boobies, who, vain of the lux- 
uries which they enjoy, insult me with 
their laughter at the privations I am 
forced to endure? No, father, take 
me home from Brienne, and make me, 
if you will, a mechanic. From these 
words you may judge of my despair. 
This letter, sir, please believe me, is 
not dictated by a vain desire to enjoy 
expensive amusements. I have no 
such wish. I feel simply that it is 
necessary to show my companions that 




The poverty in the Bonaparte family 
had not lessened, however, since Napoleon 
left, and the other children were growing 
rapidly. The father was busy planning 
for their education and trying to meet the 
pressing needs of everyday life, so that he 
could not have granted Napoleon's request, 
even if he had wished to do so, which he 
probably did not. 

It may have been because his letter was 
not answered as he wished, or, perhaps, 
because the long, lonely days were growing 
unbearable, that Napoleon became more 
irritable, and his troubles became more 
serious. One day, as he was planning a 
battle with pebbles on his garden walk, a 
schoolmate climbed up to peer at him over 
the hedge. The slender little student with 
the big head, deeply engrossed in work, did 
not see anything but rows of stone pha- 
lanxes until the intruder gave a taunting 




5= 



Napoleon 



kugh. Quick as a flash Napoleon grabbed 
a stone and threw it with all his force at 
the boy. It struck him fairly between the 
eyes, and he fell back howling from his 
perch. Napoleon was arrested for this 
and locked up in the school prison, where 
he was kept for several days. 

It can be imagined what a storm of 
wrath was aroused in the heart of the proud 
little Corsican by this disgrace. 





The Little Corsican Finds Friends 



IT was during this imprisonment that 
Napoleon made one of his few school 
friends. An Enghsh boy named Law- 
ley W8,s placed as guard over the prisoner, 
and feeling a secret sympathy for the fierce 
little foreigner, talked to him and offered 
him some advice. Perhaps it was because 
he was not one of the hated French boys, 
that Napoleon trusted him and the two 
became good friends. At any rate, Napo- 
leon had sufficient confidence in Lawley to 
trust him with a letter he had written to 
the British ambassador, asking for per- 
mission to join the English navy. Nothing 
came of the letter, but Lawley's respect for 
the small Corsican's plans, and the kind- 
ness and sympathy he showed the lonely 
lad, caused Napoleon to bind himself 
closely and loyally to his British friend. 
Napoleon always remembered a kind- 



30 



Napoleon 



ness and repaid it tenfold, as was shown 
ff] soon after when the new friend was the 
cause of another trouble which followed 
closely on the heels of the first. Lawley 
was doing sentinel duty in the garden one 
day while Napoleon was stretched out on 
the grass near him reading and studying. 
The English boy watched him until, grow- 
ing tired of his duty and of the other's 
silence, he called: 

" I don't see how you can bear to grind 
away at those old problems. I can't make 
anything out of them ; they're dreadfully 
stupid, I think." 

"They are not so bad, if you just get 
started right," answered Napoleon, as he 
turned to his friend with one of his rare 
smiles, which lighted up the dark face won- 
derfully and softened the gray eyes, giving 
the boy that irresistible attractiveness for 
which he was noted in after life. "I'll 
show you about the ones for to-morrow, if 
you want me to." 

The offer was quickly accepted and the 
boys became so interested that the senti- 



c^ig 



The Little Corsican 



31 



nel post was forgotten until an instructor 
came around to relieve Lawley. He came 
up so quietly that the boys did not see him 
until he was almost upon them ; but, before 
he could see what they were doing, Napo- 
leon had time to throw the problems to one 
side and open his copy-book. 

''What are you doing away from your 
post, Lawley?" asked the teacher sternly. 

Before the English boy could answ^er, 
Napoleon spoke quickly: 

" It was all my fault, sir; I called him to 
show him my possessions." 

''Your possessions!" said the teacher in 
a sarcastic voice, at the same time taking 
Napoleon's copy-book away from him and 
glancing down the list of estates, the names 
of which the little Corsican had written, 
and which made up either the real or 
imaginary wealth of the Bonaparte family 
By a strange chance, so at least the story 
is told, the last name on the list was " St. 
Helena, a small island in the Atlantic," 
written in a cramped, boyish scrawl. 

The book was badly blotted and 



=Ti 




32 



Napoleon 



scratched, and the teacher, angered at the 
jS?!! sight of the careless writing as much as 
at Napoleon's confessed fault, hurried the 
unfortunate boy off to prison again. 
Lawley, amazed at the quickness with 
which his little friend had come to his 
rescue, hardly grasped what was being 
done until Napoleon was locked up. 
Schoolboys are not all as brave as they 
might be under such circumstances, and 
Lawley did not come to the rescue of 
Napoleon as he should have done ; but he 
did tell his schoolmates how loyally the 
Corsican boy had stood by him, so that 
when the little prisoner was released he 
found a hearty welcome awaiting him. 

That was the beginning of happier days 
for Napoleon, for boys are the same 
the world over in their admiration of a 
brave, unselfish act, and these little French 
lads now gave their friendship and protec- 
tion willingly and enthusiastically to the 
queer little foreigner who had stood by his 
friend so loyally. Shortly after this Napo- 
leon won a prize in mathematics, and his 



^^^v^ 



The Little Corsican 



33 



pride being somewhat satisfied by this 
honor, he was more ready to receive the 
boys' advances than he had been before. 

Fortunately for his popularity, winter 
soon, came on and it was too cold for him 
to seclude himself in his garden. Then 
came a great snowstorm, and the boys 
were forced to walk the halls for exercise, 
fuming and fussing on account of their con- 
finement. Napoleon, as restless as his 
companions, was standing at the window 
gazing moodily out at the gardens in their 
smooth \\?hite mantle and at the tall trees 
standing straight and black in the midst 
of great drifts. As he looked the heavy 
clouds began to break, and lifting his head 
he turned quickly to a group of boys, 
exclaiming : ^ 

'* Boys, stop your growding and let's go 
outdoors. We'll make a fort of the snow, 
and then we'll divide and have a battle." 

Catching his enthusiasm, the boys were 
soon tumbling after him through the great 
drifts, as he called out his commands and 
explained the plans for that famous snow- 



=^ 



34 



Napoleon 



^ 



ball fight of the winter of 1783. For ten 
days the camptis of the old school was the 
scene of the merriest, wildest fun in all its 
history. Napoleon was always at his very 
best as a leader, and the care with which 
he planned his forts and outlined his 
battles was the wonder and admiration 
of all. 

All the famous battles of ancient history 

were fought 
over. Greeks 
and Persians 
were drawn up 
in battle array 
one day, only 
to be replaced 
by Romans 
and the savage 
Gauls on the 
next. Part of 
the time the 
little Corsican 
was the com- 
mander of both 
sides, dashing 



"T/fe little Corsican dashing from one front 
to the other," 




The Little Corsican 



35 



from one front to the other with his deep- 
set eyes glancing along every line, his 
straggling locks flying back in the winter 
wind, and his clear voice shouting the 
commands in queer Italian French. 

The fight lasted ten days before the snow 
began to melt, and then in spite of Napo- 
leon's commands, the boys packed their 
balls with gravel. Realizing the danger 
in this. Napoleon tried his best to prevent 
it, but Bouquet, the boy whom he had hit 
with a stone, disregarded his commands, 
and Napoleon arrived one day in the field 
just in time to see him pack a ball hard with 
pebbles and make ready to throw it. 

'* Bouquet," Napoleon called angrily, his 
eyes flashing, "drop that ball and go to the 
rear. ' ' 

** And who are you, but a little Corsican 
beggar? I'll throw the ball if I want to," 
and quick as a flash it flew from his hands 
into the lines of the enemy. 

''Coward!" shouted Napoleon, trembling 
with rage ; " don't you know the first rule of 
a soldier? Lawley, take him to the rear!" 



=1^ 




And Bouquet was 

swearing vengeance on the little Corsican, 
who, after seeing that his command had 
been obeyed, had turned indifferently to go 
on with his orders. 

Bouquet did not forget the disgrace, 
however, nor the laughter of the boys who 
had seen him carried so disgracefully to 
the rear. Shortly afterward he met Na- 
poleon and began taunting him with his 
poverty and his ancestry. Napoleon kept 
his temper fairly well until Bouquet said: 

" Your father is nothing but a beggar in 
livery, a miserable servant." 

Almost before the last word had left his 
mouth. Napoleon made a leap at the 
coward, but his friends caught him and 
held him back, telling him that he would 
only get into trouble and be imprisoned 
again. They finally persuaded the boys 
to go to their rooms, but Napoleon could 
not rest until he had done something to 
avenge his father's honor. Bourrienne, 
one of his closest friends, followed him to 
his room, to find the big head bent over a 



The Little Corsican 



37 



desk and the little thin hand cramped over 
a pen that was writing a challenge. 

Corsican gentlemen always avenged their 
wrongs in a duel, and Napoleon thought 
that there was no other way to prove to 
Bouquet that the Bonapartes were an old 
and noble family. He was glad the boys 
had kept him from soiling his hands in a 
fight with the coward ; now he would show 
him how a Corsican gentleman met an 
enemy. There was to be no foolishness 
about it just because he was only fourteen 
years old. An insult was an insult, and the 
duel should be just as real, a fight to the 
death — and the small body stood erect 
and commanding, as Napoleon handed the 
note to Bourrienne to carry to Bouquet. 

Of course Bouquet was a miserable little 
coward, or he never would have tried to 
bully a boy smaller than himself, and as 
soon as he received the challenge he 
sneaked off with it to one of the monks, 
crying that Napoleon was going to kill 
him. Napoleon's swift savageness in re- 
senting an injury was well known, and as 



hi 




instructor 
can anyway, he did not stop to consider 
that in nearly every case the lonely little 
stranger had been tormented beyond en- 
durance. 

Angry at him for the continual disturb- 
ance his presence had kept up, and without 
inquiring into the other side of the quarrel, 
the instructor ordered Napoleon locked up 
for the day. In the evening he was re- 
leased, but was told that his punishment 
was to be completed by kneeling, dressed 
in the penitential robe, at the dining room 
door all through the dinner hour, and after 
that he must apologize to Bouquet before 
the other boys. 

The utter misery and hot wrath this 
command caused the proud boy can hardly 
be grasped. He was sent to his room to 
array himself in the despised gown, but 
instead of doing so he threw himself on the 
bed, sobbing and tossing in his helplessness. 
He would not put on the robe ; they could 
kill him first, he thought fiercely, and then 
he sobbed all the louder. 



:^»^ 



The Little Corsican 



39 



What would have happened if the punish- 
ment had been carried out it is hard to say, 
but one of the monks, higher in authority 
and with a kinder heart than the one who 
had ordered the punishment, passed by 
Napoleon's door, and hearing his loud sobs 
turned and entered the room. Napoleon's 
despair was so great that he was glad to 
pour out the story of his wrongs, and the 
good father, seeing how the strange boy had 
been misunderstood, and how great an 
insult Bouquet had really offered the little 
Corsican, who was so fiercely proud of his 
noble blood, not only released him from 
further punishment, but reproved the 
monk who had ordered it. 

Just a short time after i:his Napoleon 
was overjoyed by an unexpected visit from 
General Marboeuf, and being thrown from 
his usual reserve by the surprise, he told 
his old friend of his unhappiness, only con- 
cealing the taunts about his poverty. The 
general shrewdly guessed, however, that 
the lack of money was the cause of much 
of Napoleon's trouble, and before he left 



=1^ 






40 



Napoleon 



saw that the boy had a small allowance. 
Ptl He also introduced Napoleon to the Lady 
of Brienne, who lived in the old chateau. 
She was a noble woman and one of much 
influence in the country around Brienne. 
She took a great fancy to the little Cor- 
sican and was very kind to him during the 
remainder of his life at Brienne, keeping 
him with her during the vacations, and by 
her protection saving him from many a 
punishment. 

The brightness which had begun for 
Napoleon with the change in the boys' 
feelings toward him, was now increased by 
his friendship with the Lady of Brienne, 
and by his pocket . money, until he really 
felt that he could hold his own with the 
other boys. He lost some of his sensitive 
shyness, and, as he talked more, his teachers 
understood him better, and he developed 
rapidly. 

When his own cares became lighter, he 
began to think more of the poverty in his 
home, and as he was always older than his 
years, he was able to grasp that trouble 



.^^;5= 



The Little Corsican 



4^ 



much better than most boys. At this 
time Joseph was discontented in his school 
and wanted to leave it for a military school. 
Napoleon's clear head and shrewdness are 
shown in a letter which he wrote to his 
brother, telling him that if he would remain 
where he was his future life as a priest 
would bring him ease and a good standing 
in the world. 



=ii 




At the Military School in Paris 

BUT Napoleon soon had new plans of 
his own to think of. The year 1783, 
which had already proved an event- 
ful one for him, was to be more so, for it 
brought with it Chevalier de Revalin, an 
inspector of the military schools of France, 
who came to Brienne to visit the school. 
He took a great liking to Napoleon and 
seemed to be the first to really grasp the 
greatness of the boy's mind. To the sur- 
prise of all, he selected the Corsican boy to 
go the following year to the military school 
at Paris. This was a great honor, for only 
three boys, and those three the brightest, 
were selected each year from Brienne for 
the higher school at Paris. The monks 
remonstrated with the Chevalier, but he 
answered : 

" I know what I am about; and if I am 
transgressing the rules, it is not on account 





The Little Corsican 



of family influence. I know nothing of the 
friends of this youth. I am actuated only 
by my opinion of his merit. I perceive in 
him a spark of genius, which cannot be too 
early fostered." 

Napoleon left Brienne for the military 
school at Paris the next year, 1784. He 
had spent five years at Brienne, and, in 
spite of the loneliness he had suffered there, 
he always referred to those years as among 
the happiest of his life. Probably he chose 
to * forget the dark days and remember 
only the sunnier ones. At any rate the 
friends he made there had good reason to 
be thankful that they had befriended the 
little Corsican, for he never forgot them, 
and when his days of prosperity and fame 
came he favored them whenever oppor- 
tunity offered. 

All were remembered, from the great 
lady who gave him his wreath for winning 
the prize in mathematics, to the old porter 
who had growled at him for tramping with 
the boys through the snowy fields and then 
back over his clean halls. Even Bouquet, 




his enemy, was treated with kindness 
because of the old associations. At one 
time when, following his early tendency, 
this school boy foe had fallen into disgrace 
in the army, and by some chance escaped 
punishment. Napoleon said: 

''I am glad. I should have disliked to 
punish Bouquet. You know he was one 
of the boys at Brienne. I remember once 
when he interfered with one of my pebble 
battles that I threw a general at him." 

Napoleon was fifteen years old when he 
went to Paris. So far his life had been 
spent in the secluded little island town of 
Ajaccio, and under the strict discipline of 
the military life at Brienne. The contrast 
between that life and the one in the gay 
city of Paris was startling. Bourrienne 
went with his friend part of the way, and 
an old Corsican friend met the stranger 
just as he left the coach at Paris. This 
friend, in telling of the meeting, laughed 
and said: 

He had the appearance of a fresh 
importation. I met him in the Palais 




The Little Corsican 




Royal, where he was gaping and staring at 
everything he saw. He would have been 
an excellent subject for sharpers, if, indeed, 
he had had anything worth taking." 

The life in the new school was much 
freer than it had been at Brienne. Every- 
thing was so gay and bright, and the boys 
so full of life, that, for a short time, Napo- 
leon lost his quiet ways and plunged into 
all the gaiety with great enjoyment ; but he 
soon found that money was as necessary 
here as in the old school. One of the rules 
which he had already made for himself was 
to keep out of debt, and now, if he did as 
the others, he must break that rule. His 
friends, with true schoolboy generosity, 
would gladly have shared their pleasures 
with him, but Napoleon's pride would 
never have consented to that, even if he 
had considered it honorable to contract 
debts which he had no prospect of paying. 
Cut off from the gay life around him, he 
returned to his old lonely habits, and 
became the same reserved, sullen boy he 
had been in the dark days at Brienne. 




Napoleon 




Even now Napoleon had very clear ideas 
as to what training a soldier should have, 
and the looseness of discipline and extrava- 
gant habits of the new school filled him 
with contempt. Standing outside of it all, 
he saw that the military training was the 
last thing thought of. He determined to 
change the order if possible. There w^as 
but one way to do so, and that was to apply 
directly to some one in authority. 

At last he wrote a letter to the Minister 
of War, describing the faults of the school, 
and offering his ideas of reform. Luckily 
for the boy, he sent his letter to an old 
instructor at Brienne for inspection, and 
that friend saw that it did not reach its 
destination. It is still in existence, how- 
ever, a curious, bitter letter for a boy of 
fifteen, but containing many of the prin- 
ciples which he afterward enforced in his 
own grand army of France. 

But, with all his discontent and brooding 
over privations, there were many bright 
days at Paris, for Eliza was in school at St. 
Cyr, and the Permons, old friends of the 




The Little Corsican 




Bonapartes, were very kind to the brother 
and sister. It was very fortunate for the 
strange boy that these good friends were 
with him, for the first great grief of his Hfe 
came to him in February, 1785, when 
Charles Bonaparte, the way-worn, dis- 
heartened father, died, leaving his family 
in debt and almost penniless. Napoleon, 
overwhelmed with grief, wrote to his Uncle 
Lucien : 

''We have lost a father and God alone 
knows what a father, and what w^ere his 
attachment and devotion to us. Alas! 
everything taught us to look to him as the 
support of our youth. But the will of God 
is unalterable; He alone can comfort us." 

Homesick and broken-hearted with his 
sorrow, Napoleon was also greatly worried 
by the actual want in his home. Lucien, 
now nearly eleven, was at Brienne, and 
added to the general anxiety by objecting 
to his life at this school, and by turning his 
attention to literature. The four children 
at home — Louis, nine ; Pauline, seven ; Car- 
oline, five ; and Jerome, three — all had to 



48 



Napoleon 



be clothed, fed, and educated. Joseph, 
i?ir discontented, as always, with his studies, 
went home to help support the family, but, 
unfortunate and easy-going, he only in- 
creased the burden. 

It was now that the remarkable strength 
of character of Madame Bonaparte showed 
itself. Putting aside her grief she went to 
work, and with tireless energy and careful 
management reduced expenses and pro- 
vided for her household. Napoleon, quiet 
and thoughtful, thoroughly appreciated his 
mother's efforts, as is shown by the follow- 
ing letter which he wrote shortly after his 
father's death: 



"My Dear Mother: Now that 
time has begun to soften the first 
transports of my sorrow, I hasten to 
express to you the gratitude I feel for 
all the kindness you have always dis- 
played toward us. Console yourself, 
dear mother; circumstances require 
that you should. We will redouble 
our care and our gratitude, happy, if 
by our obedience we can make up to 
you in the smallest degree for the in- 



The Little Corsican 



49 



estimable loss of a cherished husband. 
I finish, dear mother, my grief compels 
it, by praying you to calm yourself. 
My health is perfect, and my daily 
prayer is that Heaven may grant you 
the same. 

"Your humble and affectionate son, 

''Napoleon." 



h^ 



During the lonely months that followed 
the death of his father, Napoleon, in his 
grief and poverty, drew more and more 
within himself. One friend, however, 
Alexander des Mazes, would not allow the 
cold, proud manner of the Corsican boy to 
overcome his sympathy, and the two boys 
came very near to each other through the 
spring and summer. In the following 
autumn, 1785, they took the examination 
which entitled them to promotion. Napo- 
leon was assigned to the artillery and 
received his appointment as second lieu- 
tenant in September. 




THE military education of the two 
boys was now finished, and, at their 
request, they were given a command 
in the same town. Napoleon had no 
money for traveling expenses, and Des 
Mazes had barely enough to take them 
as far as Lyons, where they arrived one 
morning without a cent in their pockets. 
Luckily, an old friend of the Bonaparte 
family lived there, and he gave the boys 
sufficient money to finish their 
journey. But Lyons was a 
new city to the boys, and they 
fotmd so much of interest 
that they spent the rest of 
the day and the greater part 
of their money having 
G^o-a^co ^ good time; conse- 
^p.kJu^<L>7^s quently their pockets 

Napoleon at the a,e Of i6. This , the ^ ^"^ ^ empty agaill 
iirst portrait of the little Corsican, is 
from a sketch made by a comrade at 
Brienne, and now in the Louvre. 
Under the portrait appears "Mio caro 
amico Buonaparte, Pontormini del 
Tournone, ijiis" 




The Little Corsican 



51 



before they reached their post. This time 
there was no friend to refill them, so they 
had to travel the last day on foot, arriving 
in camp footsore and dirty. 

Discipline amounted to next to nothing 
in French military affairs at this period, 
and the soldiers led a wild, free life. 
Napoleon had learned at Paris that he had 
the power to please if he saw fit to do so, 
and for a time he chose to lay aside his 
reserved manner and take part in the gay 
camp life. The slender, dark, sixteen-year- 
old lieutenant, with his rare attractive 
smile, became a favorite. His friends 
learned that he could talk well, even 
brilliantly, when interested, and that, 
although his clothes were shabby and 
his great boots sizes too large for him, 
he was never without a quiet dignity and 
charm that commanded their respect. 

But the expense of such a life was great 
and Napoleon's salary was very small; so 
small, in fact, that after his hving expenses 
were met he had less than seven dollars a 
month for clothes and pocket money. It 



Napoleon 



was the same thing he had faced at Paris. 
He soon reahzed that he could not con- 
tinue his gay Hfe and keep out of debt. 
There was but one thing left for him to do 
if he vv^ould retain his self-respect. His 
young friends must be given up. 

All through the days that followed, the 
proud, ambitious boy kept his back turned 
on the pleasures of those around him. He 
spent his leisure hours poring over 
histories and geographies, thereby gaining 
that vast knowledge of the resources and 
wealth of countries which, in after years, 
people were apt to look upon with awe, 

and to declare 
was the result 



of genius. It 
was, however, 
the result of 

A^ downright 
hard work, en- 

ucrgy, self-sacri- 
fice, and a 
strong will with 
an unyielding 
determination 




*' Napoleon spent his hours poring over histories 
and geographies." 




The Little Corsican 




to trample under foot surrounding diffi- 
culties and to rise to the best within him. 

Nothing happened to break the monot- 
ony of garrison life until a little rebellion 
known as the Two Cent Revolt broke out 
in Lyons, and Napoleon's company was 
ordered there. The trouble was all over 
when they arrived, but Napoleon staid in 
the city for a time, not rejoining his regi- 
ment until the middle of October, when 
his command was stationed in Flan- 
ders. Here Napoleon's troubles reached 
a climax. Joseph was without a position ; 
Uncle Lucien was ill; General Marboeuf, 
the friend of the family, was dead; and 
Madame Bonaparte, who received a yearly 
allowance for planting mulberry trees, had 
failed to receive her annual payment. 

A letter filled with these difficulties came 
to Napoleon and put an end to all his 
studies. Anxious to get home, to see for 
himself the state of affairs there, he asked 
for a leave of absence. It was refused him. 
Brooding over his troubles he at last 
worried himself into a malarial fever, and 



=^ 



54 



Napoleon 



sick, weak, and lonely he lost courage and 
iJr^l even hinted at suicide. Fortunately for 
his health and peace of mind, leave was 
finally granted him, and he started for 
home the first of February, 1787. 

It was the first time the Corsican boy 
had seen his home since he left it eight 
years before, and he found affairs in about 
as bad a state as they could be. With 
the energy which even now marked 
him when difficulties were highest, he 
attempted to straighten the tangle of home 
troubles. The next year and a half were 
spent for the greater part at home, looking 
after the business interests of the family, 
and trying to arrange for the education of 
Louis and Lucien. A short time before 
he had begun a history of Corsica, which 
he now took up again with other writings, 
but disappointed in getting them published 
he grew discouraged and more gloomy than 
ever. 

Napoleon returned to his regiment in 
1788, and there began again to study, 
write, and work, making long extracts 



The Little Corsican 



55 



from the books he read, and keeping a 
journal which is full of curious thoughts 
on society, love, and nature. It was from 
here that he wrote his mother : 

" I have no other resource but work. I 
dress but once in eight days. I sleep but 
little since my illness. I retire at ten and 
rise at four in the morning. I take but one 
meal a day, at three ; that is good for my 
health." 

But there was a limit to the brave young 
soldier's endurance. In spite of his efforts 
to relieve the need at home, letters full of 
anxiety came from his mother, and, weak- 
ened by hard study and lack of food, 
Napoleon was again taken ill. The burden 
which he had taken up soon after his other 
illness had proved too heavy for even his 
wiry body, and for a long time his life hung 
in the balance. As soon as he was able to 
travel he was granted another leave of 
absence, and again returned to Corsica. 

A few months after the young officer's 
return, the whole island was gladdened and 
sent into a state of the wildest rejoicing 



=ii 




Napoleon 




over the return of their hero, Paoli, who 
had been in exile for years. Napoleon, 
who had always adored the old general, 
was chosen to give the address of welcome, 
and Paoli took a great liking to the enthu- 
siastic young officer. Soon after Paoli's 
return, an enemy published a malicious 
attack on his character. Napoleon loyally 
came to the defense of his old friend, in a 
letter which was greatly admired for its 
patriotic expression and clever, concise 
reasoning. In the same year, 1791, a 
prize was offered by the Academy of 
Lyons for the best composition written 
by a young man. Napoleon entered the 
contest, but his paper was so miserably 
done, so full of faults in every way, that 
it was given no attention whatever. 

In February, 1791, Napoleon again left 
home to join his regiment at Valence. 
The poverty at home was just as great as 
ever, and Napoleon resolved to take Louis 
with him, hoping that some opportunity 
would present itself for placing the boy in 
school. The two lived in a bare room, 



I 



The Little Corsican 



57 



furnished with a couch and two chairs. 

Louis studied under his brother's direction, 

preparing himself for the army. Napoleon, 

bravely and without a complaint, stretched 

out his sixty cents a day to pay for their 

board, room rent, and clothing. Often 

their only meal was dry bread, and the 

only luxury the older brother 

allowed himself was, now and 

then, to bu}^ some long desired 

book. After Louis had gone to 

sleep on the little pallet drawn 

up near the couch. Napoleon 

would sit for hours, studying 

and writing and planning how 

to make his slender salary cover 

the wants of Louis and himself, 

while all the time thinking of 

some way to help at home. 

There was not much change in 
the looks of the young man of twenty, 
as he bent over his books in the dimly 
lighted room, and the little dark Corsican 
at Brienne. His head was more shapely, 
but yet too large for his small, deep- 




A French drummer 
hoy. 




Napoleon 




chested body, and his lank hair fell in flat 
locks on either side of a sallow face, lighted 
up by the same piercing gray-blue eyes that 
had so often flashed contempt and scorn at 
his tormentors in the old school days. He 
carried himself with a proud reserve, but 
the charm which he had learned was his 
in the days at Paris had increased, and it 
was no trouble for him to win friends now 
if he cared to do so. He was fond of study- 
ing people, and in his long visits at Ajac- 
cio he had spent weeks in the country 
among the Corsican peasants, making him- 
self one of them, and putting himself in 
touch with their thoughts and feelings. 

All of this had taught him how to 
reach people, and was the foundation of 
the great power he afterward had over 
his soldiers and the common people of 
France His other characteristics were 
unchanged. His ungovernable w*ill, his 
unceasing energy and perseverance, and 
his daring to do what he would in the 
face of all opposition, had grown steadily 
stronger and greater as he grew older. 





The Little Corsican 



The first time liis remarkable will and 
fearless daring were brought forcibly to 
light was abotit two years after the life at 
Valence, when Napoleon was on one of his 
furloughs in Corsica. It came time to 
elect a new commander of the National 
Guards of Ajaccio, and Napoleon decided 
that he wanted the position. In spite of 
the fact that the same place was sought for 
by Marius Peraldi and Pozzo di Borgo, 
rich and influential men who had all the 
leading citizens of Corsica on their side. 

Napoleon determined to have the posi- 
tion. He immediately went to work with 
an activity and enthusiasm that swept all 
obstacles before him. He smiled, threat- 
ened, promised, made his friends work for 
him and with him, until his party nearly 
equaled that of the other side, and the 
town was divided into bands, each firmly 
determined to win. And then they waited 
anxiously for the coming of the commis- 
sioners, for whichever side was favored by 
these officers would be sure to win the 
coveted reward. 



=^ 




6o 



Napoleon 



^ 



At last the commissioners came, and 
Marati, the most important of them all, 
went diTectly to the home of Marius 
Peraldi, Napoleon's most dreaded oppo- 
nent. This announced to every one that 
the great man was in favor of Peraldi, 
whose party went wild with joy. Napo- 
leon for a few hours lost heart, and became 
moody and irresolute, then, recovering his 
unbounded faith in himself, he began to 
work. For a whole day he tried to inspire 
his friends — they were paralyzed. Seeing 
that nothing could be expected from them 
he resolved to act for himself. That even- 
ing as Peraldi' s family and Marati were at 
dinner they were startled by a loud knock- 
ing, and before they realized what had 
happened, a band of masked men burst into 
the room, seized Marati and carried him 
off to the home of Napoleon. The young 
Corsican greeted the astonished, indignant 
officer with a quiet smile, saying: 

' I wished you to be free, perfectly free ; 
you were not so at Peraldi' s house." 

The next day Napoleon was elected. 





The Little Corsican 



The people of Ajaccio, startled by the bold 
fearlessness of the act, made no objection, 
until, at the meeting of the next court, 
Pozzo di Borgo entered a complaint. It 
is said that as soon as the enthusiastic 
followers of Napoleon heard of this, they 
seized di Borgo, threw him to the ground, 
and were about to trample him to death in 
their excitement, when Napoleon appeared 
upon the scene and rescued his enemy. 

Napoleon's newly acquired power, in- 
stead of satisfying his ambition aroused 
him more fully to an understanding of 
Vv^hat he might accomplish in Corsica if 
he was shrewd enough in his planning. 
His confidence in his position, as the son 
of one of the most highly respected, fam- 
ilies in Ajaccio, led him, perhaps, beyond 
the bounds of his usual shrewdness. 

About this time trouble broke out be- 
tween the Roman Catholics and their 
political opponents in the Corsican town. 
Napoleon was very active in the numerous 
broils that followed and was accused of 
being the cause of many of them. These 



=^ 



62 



Napoleon 



^ 



outbreaks were especially unfortunate at 
this time, for Paoli, the beloved Corsican 
patriot, was trying to establish a consti- 
tutional government on the island, and 
peace was absolutely neces- 
sary for success. 

So long as Napoleon remain- 
ed in Ajaccio peace seemed 
impossible. Paoli and other 
authorities were not long in 
giving voice to their displeas- 
ure. Napoleon was made to 
feel that he must abide by 
their wishes or leave the is- 
land. His restless, active na- 
ture chafed under the re- 
straint. To remain in Corsica 
without attempting to push 

The hoy Napoleon. From ^ . i r i 

a marble bust by the himSClt tO pOWCr WaS impOS- 

famous Corsican sctdp- .^-, /^j'i r r^ • 1' 

tor Ceracchi, now in Slblc. UutSlde Ot L-OrSlCa lUS 

the museum at Ajaccio, - . ^. . -■ 

Corsica. This was uatural mclmation was toward 

made during the Ital- -r^ ,1-1 r 1 • 

ian campaign. P raucc, partly bccausc or Ills 

boyhood associations with that country, 
and partly because of the condition of 
affairs in the French country at this time. 




I 




At last his decision was made: he would 
leave Corsica and go to France — to Paris. 

The very name of Paris was enongh at 
this time to stir the blood of such a young 
patriot of freedom as our Corsican. The 
country whose government he had so 
despised in the days at Brienne was now 
the center of a fierce struggle for liberty 
and equality. For years France had been 
ruled by kings whose power was absolute. 
So long as the king was a man of great 
strength and wisdom the French govern- 
ment grew in power ; but with the coming 
of the weak, frivolous Louis XV., a man 
who shirked his duties while claiming all 
kingly rights, the work of governing fell 
into the hands of greedy courtiers. These 
men cared for nothing but the bettering of 
their own fortunes. 

Before the French king had assumed 
absolute control of his people, the nobility 
and clergy had rendered certain services 
of" government ; for this work they were 
relieved from taxation. Although the 
duties they had performed were now per- 




formed b] 

still favored with freedom from taxation. 
About half of the land of France was owned 
by the nobility and the clergy. The taxes 
needed for the support of the government 
had to come from the other half, which 
was occupied by the lower and poorer 
classes of people. 

This order of affairs had brought much 
misery to the peasants of France, even 
when the king had been a man of superior 
strength and justice. But with the reign 
of Louis XV. their condition became most 
pitiable. To support the extravagant 
court and supply the demands of the cour- 
tiers who were doing the king's work, the 
taxes were increased until the poor people 
had not enough left from their toil to keep 
them from hunger. 

Matters were in, this state when Louis 
XVL came to the throne. He was a young, 
inexperienced king who lacked energy but 
who desired to help his people. Numerous 
attempts were made to straighten out the 
tangle, but each of them failed after a 



The Little Corsican 



65 



time. The oppressed class began to see 
that help was not to come from the king, 
and that if they were to be freed from their 
heavy burden they must free themselves. 

Fortunately for them, greater and wiser 
men had long been questioning why such 
things should be. Why should one class 
of human beings starve and work, with no 
reward, to support another class to whom 
they owed nothing? These men had put 
their thoughts into words, and the country 
was flooded with pamphlets and books in 
which freedom for all men was the chief 
theme. The thoughts of these great men 
had been working throughout France and 
Europe for years, until their influence was 
felt by all classes. 

In the meantime the middle class of 
France had gradually grown stronger, both 
in intellect and in wealth, because the lazi- 
ness and dissipation of the upper class 
created a demand for their work. All of 
-these things — the belief in freedom for all 
men, the increasing strength of the sub- 
stantial middle class, the weakness and 



h^ 



66 



Napoleon 



greed of the governing power, and the 
oppression of the lower classes — created a 
mighty discontent in France, and this dis- 
content grew until the whole land was in 
a turmoil, and the great French Revolution 
broke out in 1789. 

It was into this struggle that Napoleon 
decided to throw himself. His resolve to 
join the French was approved by his fam- 
ily. The Corsicans, life -long enemies of 
the French, could not understand this sud- 
den change in a family which had always 
been noted for its loyalty to Corsica. Full 
of resentment they drove the Bonapartes 
from the island, burning their home and 
leaving them penniless and dependent on 
what fortune would bring them in France. 

But Napoleon had spent only five 
months with his regiment m the last two 
and a half years, and, although he had 
done no more than was common in those 
days in the French army, his leaves were 
not always granted him ; he extended them 
to suit his pleasure. The result was that 
when he returned to Paris in the spring of 




1792 lie found he had lost his place in the 
French army. This was partly on account 
of his numerous absences and partly on 




From a lithograph by Charlet 

Napoleon at the Tuileries, August 10, 1792, watching the mob dtir- 
ing the Reign of Terror, assembled to m,assacre the Swiss Guards. 

account of the way he had borne himself 
toward the French while in Corsica. lie 



=^ 



68 



Napoleon 



at once made application to regain his 
place, but it was not until the following 
August that he was reinstated in the army. 

In the meantime, almost penniless, he 
wandered about the streets of Paris, even 
pawning his watch to get money to live. 
Bourrienne, his old schoolmate and friend 
at Brienne, found him, and the two 
schemed and planned in different ways to 
better their fortunes. 

While they worked and waited, Paris 
was being drenched with blood. Napoleon 
saw the savage mobs sweep through the 
city, leaving terror, desolation, and death 
in their wake. He saw the king forced 
from the throne, the nobles driven from 
the city; murder, robbery, and treachery 
were on all sides. He began to under- 
stand that while his ideas of liberty and 
equaHty might be right, in the hands of 
the ignorant, impulsive classes, they were 
nothing but watchwords for destruction. 

He saw that the Revolution needed some 
one to guide it — that France needed a 
head. 




The Young General 



IT was December, 1797. All Paris was 
in holiday attire, gay with bright 
colors, and a shouting, excited crowd 
was pushing its way toward the great 
palace. In the court of this magnificent 
building was a large amphitheater which 
had been erected for this day's jubilee. 
Opposite the main entrance stood the altar 
of France surrounded by statues of Liberty, 
Equality, and Peace. The great hall was 
filled with brilliantly dressed officials and 
beautiful women, eager, expectant, curious. 
Suddenly a loud cheer was started, and the 
building rang with the shout as a group of 
high officials entered. Every head was 
bared in an instant. 

''Which one is he?" asked one of the 
crowd eagerly. 

''The young man with the sallow face 
and large head. Don't you see him?" 




Napoleon 




answered a neighbor, pulling the other to 
the front, where he could see the speaker. 

'' That little man the conqueror of Italy 
exclaimed some one in a disappointed voice. 
And then all were silent, for Talleyrand, a 
famous minister of France, had begun to 
talk. The people listened to him, discon- 
tentedly, anxiously waiting to hear the 
hero of the day. At last the tiresome 
speech was ended, and a wild cheer went 
up as a small, deep-chested young man 
of about twenty-eight took the speaker's 
place. He stood quietly while the crowd, 
shouted, his piercing eyes sweeping the vast 
crowd. It was our little Corsican. 

Soon after he and his family had been 
driven penniless from Corsica an insurrec- 
tion arose in Marseilles where the Bona- 




At the siege of Toulon, 1792. " Buonaparte ^ 

partes had taken refuge. Napoleon wrote 
a paper on the affair in which he expressed 



:^Si^ 



The Little Corsican 



7^ 



the whole trouble so clearly and justly 
that the authorities ordered copies of the 
pamphlet to be scattered throughout the 
country. This pamphlet first brought the 
young foreigner into notice and he was 
promised favor as soon as the opportunity 
should come. That time soon came. 

In the winter of 1793, at Toulon, a 
French seaport, the French surrendered 
their town to the English, whose fleet was 
occupying the bay. Napoleon was sent at 
the head of the Second Regiment to join 
the troops which were already trying to 
retake the city. As soon as he arrived 
he saw that the siege was useless so long 
as the EngHsh fleet lay in the harbor. He 
was only a subordinate officer, however, 
and it was some time before he could get 
the general in command to listen to him. 
At last, however, he succeeded. He placed 
the artillery at points which commanded 
the harbor, the fleet was bombarded, forced 
to withdraw, and the city, exactly as the 
young officer had foreseen, was subdued. 
For his services here Napoleon was made 



7^ 



Napoleon 



^ 



general of the brigade. The wiry, uncon- 
querable Httle Corsican had at last made 
an opening for himself. The poverty 
which he had fought all his life became a 
thing of the past, his family was helped, 
and the young man felt relieved from the 
burden of anxiety which he had carried 
since a child. 

Although this relief was very great and 
left him free to do many things which 
before were impossible, Napoleon soon 
found that his misfortunes were not at an 
end. In August, after the fall of Toulon, 
he was arrested because of his intimacy 
with a young man by the name of Robes- 
pierre, whose father, falling under the sus- 
picion of the Revolutionists, had been 
beheaded. The favor of the impulsive 
French people was a very unreliable thing 
in those days of the Revolution, and Napo- 
leon spent two very anxious weeks in prison 
before he was released and assured that he 
was not to be one of the many who were 
each day carted off to the dreaded guillo- 
tine. 




After alithigraph hy Blotte 

Napoleon in prison. At the jail of Robespierre from power, all his 

friends were cast into prison, Napoleon among them. At the 

end of thirteen days his friends procured his release. 

of a disgrace, and did not affect Napoleon 
half as much as an incident which occurred 



74 



Napoleon 



in April of the next spring. Napoleon had 
been away from Paris all winter on one 
expedition and another, and when he 
rejoined the army he found that he had 
been changed from the department of the 
artillery to that of the infantry. This 
change was considered a great disgrace, 
and just why it had been done no one 
seemed to know. Napoleon refused to go 
with his command under such circum- 
stances, and the opening which he had 
worked so fiercely to make, and which had 
looked so bright and full of promise, was 
closed. A sullen despair, a feeling that he 
was doomed to be a failure, settled over 
him. 

One great secret of Napoleon's success m 
life was the qtiickness with which he sprang 
to his feet after a downfall. Even now, 
when the working and waiting of years 
seemed to have brought him nothing but 
disappointment, he did not allow his mis- 
fortune to overwhelm him for long. His 
restless, ambitious mind had long been 
attracted to the countries of the far East, 



I 



i 



The Little Corsican 



75 



and he was soon in the midst of enthusi- 
astic schemes for an expedition to Turkey. 
While he was busy studying routes, 
planning campaigns, and writing numerous 
letters to his brother Joseph about what he 




Napoleon studying routes, and planning campaigns. 

should do when he had the Orient at his 
feet, the war committee at Paris were look- 
ing for some one to draw up plans for an 
Italian campaign. An old friend of Na- 
poleon, who knew of the long hours of 
thorough study which the yotmg man 
had given to the geography of foreign coun- 
tries, recommended him to the commit- 
tee. He was called before it and his clear 



=^ 



76 



Napoleon 



judgment, careful attention to all details, 
and enthusiastic energy soon made him 
friends and brought him the confidence 
of those in authority. 

So great was this confidence that when 
the overthrow of the government was 
threatened by a revolt in Paris, October, 
1795, Napoleon was asked to take charge 
of the force which was to defend the Tuil- 
eries where the national convention was in 
session. 

''I accept," he said to the friend who 
came to him with the request, "but I warn 
you that once my sword is out of the scab- 
bard, I shall not replace it till I have estab- 
lished order." 

And he kept his word. With swiftness 
and a perfectness of method which took the 
breath of those whom he commanded, he 
prepared the defense of the palace. Can- 
nons were placed at the head of all the 
avenues leading from the Tuileries, so that 
their deadly fire could sweep the long 
streets. So thoroughly was the work done 
that when the mob marched up the streets 



I 



The Little Corsican 



77 



toward the Tuileries a roar from the can- 
nons greeted them, and Paris was quieted 
almost before the people realized that the 
revolt had begun. 

A few weeks later Napoleon was made 
general-in-chief of the Army of the Interior. 
He had come to the front once more, and 
this time with a bound that placed him 
firmly in a position which many an old and 
experienced general would have considered 
it an honor to hold. 

Loyal to those who had been his friends 
in times of trouble, on the very day after 
the sweeping victory of the Tuileries, when 
every one was singing the praises of the 
** little ofhcer," and excited Paris clamored 
for a sight of the hero, Napoleon, sym- 
pathetic and full of sorrow, spent several 
hours at the Permons, where Monsieur Per- 
mon had just died. With the honor which 
came to him through his new position, 
came also the power to secure positions of 
ease for many who had been kind to him in 
the past, and through his efforts his mother 
brothers, and sisters were placed in luxury. 




^ 



Napoleon 



During these months of excitement and 
quick advance in pubhc favor, Napoleon 
was made much of and entertained by 
many wealthy and influential people. 
Among the many whom he met was Jose- 
phine de Beauharnais, a woman whose 
charm of manner and sweetness of dispo- 
sition made her a favorite in the brilliant 
circle around her. Napoleon was attracted 
to her from their very first meeting, and 
determined to marry her. In his love 
afl^airs, as in his public life, to will was to 
do with the masterful Napoleon, and Jose- 
phine became Madame Bonaparte in the 
month of March, 1796. 




I 




Napoleon's First Great Campaigns 



JUST one week before his marriage 
Napoleon had been made commander 
in chief of the Army of Italy, an 
army which had been in Italy for three 
years without making any headway against 
the Austrians, who were steadily gaining 
possession of the disputed territory. The 
position was one of great difficulty for the 
young commander. Under him were men 
much older than himself — generals who 
had won fame and grown old in years of 
service. It was not to be supposed that 
they would welcome as a commander a 
young man, barely twenty-seven, a for- 
eigner of whom they knew nothing except 
that he had won Paris by a skillful trick in 
defending the Tuileries. 

Dignified, severe, and with an air of 
undiaputed power. Napoleon joined his 
ragged, half -starved, rebellious command 



8o 



Napoleon 



s?\ 



on March 22, 1796; just nineteen days 
afterward disobedience and rebellion were 
at an end, the most rigid discipline had 
taken its place, and the army was ready 
and eager to act. 

Not for one instant had Napoleon 
appeared at a loss. Familiar with every 
detail of army life, from the planning of a 
great campaign to the loading and firing of 
his army's cannons, he had been complete 
master of the situation from 
the very start; just as he 
had been in the snowball 
fight at Brienne so many 
years before. The old offi- 
cers who came into his pres- 
,ence, for the first time, 
with a feeling of contempt 
in their hearts for his abil- 
% ity, had been given curt, 
decisive orders, accompa- 
nied with a shrewd, piercing 
glance from under the heavy brows, which 
assured them that the dark young officer 
was there to command, and they to obey. 




A French caualrvman. 



^^ 



The Little Corsican 



8i 



All disobedience had been met with swift, 
sure punishment; all attention to duty 
with a quiet word of approval. 

On the tenth of Aprils enthusiastic and 
certain of victory, Napoleon led his army 
against the Austrians; fifteen days after- 
ward his troops were drawn up before him 
and he addressed them as follows: 

"Soldiers! In fifteen days you have 
gained six victories, taken twenty-one 
-Stands of colors, fifty-five pieces of cannon, 
and several fortresses, and conquered the 
richest part of Piedmont. You have made 
fifteen hundred prisoners, and killed or 
wounded ten thousand men 

''You were utterly destitute, and have 
supplied your wants. You have gained 
battles without cannons, passed rivers 
without bridges, performed forced marches 
without shoes, bivouaced without brandy 
and often without bread. None but repub- 
lican phalanxes — soldiers of liberty — could 
have borne what you have endured. For 
this you have the thanks of your country." 

The people of Italy were astonished, 



=1^ 




^ 




Napoleon 

France was wild, and the army itself was 
breathless and bewildered over the sweep- 
ing victories of a fortnight. The remain- 
der of the campaign was like the beginning, 
a series of brilliant battles, of deeds of fear- 
less daring on the part of the French, of 
overwhelming defeat for the enemy. The 
revolting provinces in Italy were subdued, 
the Austrians were driven out of the fair 
country and made to sue for peace under 
the very walls of Vienna. Napoleon was. 
in every place, inspiring his soldiers with a 
bravery that made them his devoted fol- 
lowers ever after, cheer- 
ing them when they had 
done their best, chiding 

During the Italian campaign, 1796, thcm for thc IcaSt nCg- 
" Bonaparte." 

lect of duty. 
At the battle of Lodi, the bulk of the 
Austrian army lay beyond a bridge, the 
end of which had been fortified with can- 
nons. The French troops rushed forward, 
but the great Austrian guns belched forth 
such a terrible storm of shot and shell that 
the lines gave way, faltered, and fell back. 



fi*^f€<^/Sl0Xj^ 



.-^g^ 



The Little Corsican 



83 



Napoleon, seeing that all was about to be 
lost, sprang to the front, cheering his men, 
while he stood directly in the sweep of the 
death-dealing cannon. The French army, 
wild with enthusiasm, rushed after him and 
the victory was won; won, too, was the 
loyalty of the French army for their Little 
Corporal, a name which the soldiers gave 
Napoleon that day and which clung to him 
ever after. From that battle the soldiers 
were his to do with as he would, and never, 
in all history, has any general had the 
influence over his men, or the unbounded 
love and admiration of those under him, 
that Napoleon had. 

While all this was going on in Italy, Paris 
was receiving, along with the news of vic- 
tory, money, magnificent pictures, beau- 
tiful statues, and treasures of untold value 
from the conquered country. Procession 
after procession filed through the streets 
of Paris, made up of chariots filled with 
all this wealth from Italian galleries and 
treasure houses, accompanied with fly- 
ing colors, with bands of musicians, and 



=1^ 



ff= 



84 



Napoleon 



with soldiers and citizens singing national 
hymns to celebrate the wonderful victory. 
It is no wonder that the people of Paris 
went wild with enthusiasm over the man 
who had brought them all this good for- 
tune ; that all else should be laid aside on 
the day of his return, while the multitude 
crowded in and aroimd the grand court of 
the palace to hear the Little Corporal tell, 
modestly and hesitatingly, of the victories 
his army had won in sunny Italy. 

It was a great day for Napoleon, but one 
for which he had worked and waited. 
Many people, dazzled by the brilliancy of 
our little Corsican's life, believe 
that his wonderful success was 
due alone to his remarkable 
military genius. But the 
friends who have followed 
him through his lonely, discon- 
tented days at Brienne, where 
he spent his time studying 
the life of Plutarch and the 
campaigns of Caesar, and 
through the long hours at 



A French grenadier. 




The Little Corsican 



85 



Valence and Auxonne, where he pinched A 
and starved to help his people; working jfi^ 
always, desperately and thoroughly, with a 
perseverance unknown among the young 
soldiers ; these friends know that it was not 
genius alone. 

For days after Napoleon's return from 
Italy, the enthusiasm for the hero con- 
tinued. He tried to shut himself up, away 
from the crowds who came to see him, but 
he could not restrain the admiration of the 
French people. At the theaters there were 
plays produced descriptive of his Italian 
campaign; the great poets wrote about 
him, and whenever he ventured out he was 
received with the greatest dignity and 
respect. But none of this pomp and glory 
satisfied Napoleon. It was impossible for 
him to remain inactive, and he said: 

" Paris weighs on me like a leaden 
mantle." 

France was now at peace with all the 
continent, but was on the eve of war with 
England. To make a direct attack on the 
island it was necessary to have a fleet. 



86 



Napoleon 



^^ The French had no fleet. Therefore it was 
^1 decided to attack England through her 
colonies. Far-away Egypt, a Turkish 
province, was selected as the first field of 
war ; if it could be secured for the French, 
England would be cut off from India. 

The dreams that Napoleon had had of 
seeking wealth and fame in the Orient 
began to haunt him again as the govern- 
ment made its plans for invading the land 
of the Pyramids. He asked to be sent to 
Egypt; his request was granted, and he 
left Paris May, 1798. By the last of July 
the island of Malta 
had been won by him 
for the French, Alex- 








Napoleon and the Sphinx. His tribute during the Egyptian 

campaign. 

andria had been taken, the great battle of 
the Pyramids had been fought, and the 



The Little Corsican 



87 



French government was in control of Cairo. 
In the months that followed, Napoleon 
worked hard to establish his eastern em- 
pire. He had brought with him a number 
of great scholars, who explored the ancient 
country far and wide, and 
discovered, among other 




Detail after the painting by Maurice Orange 

Bonaparte at the base of the Pyramids, being shown the mummies of 

Egypt. 

things, the bed of an old canal, which 
has since been turned into the present 
Suez Canal. The Institute of Egypt was 
foimded, and civilization and education 
were encouraged everywhere. 



=T^ 



88 



Napoleon 



Shortly after the arrival of Napoleon in 
Egypt, the English fleet, which had been in 
search of the French for weeks, discovered 
the enemy's vessels off the coast of Egypt. 
A battle followed between the two fleets, 
in which the French were conquered and 
their ships destroyed. Napoleon and his 
land forces awakened to find themselves 
shut up in a foreign country with the Brit- 
ish war vessels guarding the coast and cut- 
ting off all communications with France. 
Napoleon controlled the land, however, 
and so long as the trouble confined itself 
to the naval forces he continued his peace- 
ful labors at Cairo. 

But in the midst of his work he received 
word that Turkey had declared war against 
France, and that two Turkish armies were 
already on their way to attack the French 
force in Egypt. Napoleon at once massed 
his troops and marched to meet the enemy. 
The plague and the heat weakened the 
French army, and the expedition ended in 
failure and retreat. And, although a sec- 
ond division of the Turks was routed soon 



The Little Corsican 



89 



after in the battle of Aboukir, Napoleon 
never again had the same dreams of estab- 
lishing an oriental kingdom. 

During the negotiations of the two 
armies concerning peace some old French 
newspapers fell into the hands of Napoleon. 
It had been nearly a year since he had 
heard anything from Paris, and now he 
read with dismay that Italy had been lost, 
that France was threatened by war with 
Russia, and that the French government 
was about to fall. Napoleon started for 
Paris at once, leaving his army in Egypt. 

An adverse wind arose as Napoleon's 
boat neared the island of Corsica, and at 
last forced the voyagers to take shelter in 
the Gulf of Ajaccio. For nearly a week 
they were kept here, and Napoleon wan- 
dered through the town, pointing out, with 
all his old-time pride, the home of his an- 
cestors, and greeting his boyhood friends. 
The resentm.ent which the Corsicans had 
felt for Napoleon when he had cast in 
his fortune with that of France was swal- 
lowed up in their pride in the little Cor- 



=^ 




y 



'Napoleon 




sican who had once belonged to them, and 
whose name and fame were now world-wide. 

Uncle Joey Fesch, who was soon to be 
made an archdeacon, still lived in Ajaccio, 
and he and Napoleon again lived over the 
days when they had routed the shepherd 
lads, and the older boy had sympathized 
with and protected his queer, dark little 
nephew. Even now he came to. the rescue, 
as in the old times. Napoleon had left 
Egypt much poorer than when he went 
there, although the money chest of the 
army was under his control, and he could 
have supplied his wants if he had cared to 
do so. The archdeacon now helped him 
by exchanging French money for the Turk- 
ish, but even with that help. Napoleon had 
barely enough to meet his expenses to 
Paris, which he reached October, i6, 1799. 

One disaster after another had come to 
France since Napoleon had left. No sooner 
had he landed in Egypt than Austria and 
Russia, supported by English money, 
had waged war upon the republic. The 
French were driven from the conquered 




The Little Corsican 




provinces in Italy and Germany and the 
enemy threatened to invade France itself. 
Added to these troubles the new govern- 
ment in France had not been satisfactory, 
and the people of the king's party were 
creeping from their hiding places with an 
assurance that boded no good to the new 
republic. 

No wonder that the young commander, 
who had gained such brilliant victories in 
Itaty, who had disappeared so soon after 
in the Egyptian campaign, only to reappear 
again in the hour of their greatest need, 
was received with the wildest joy. So 
swift, so sure, so complete had been his 
victory in the past, that the im- 
pulsive French people gave them- 
selves up to rejoicing. They had 
the utmost faith that what the 
Little Corporal had done once 
he could do again, and that 
France was saved. His journey 
from Frejus, where he landed, 
'to Paris was one of the greatest 
triumph. All, from the highest 




One of Napoleon's 

non-commts stoned 

officers. 




to the lowest, hastened to greet the young 
hero ; hastened to welcome him home. 

Such universal faith in his power brought 
the greatest happiness to Napoleon, and 
now, as ever, when his people were with 
him, he acted quickly, with unerring judg- 
m.ent, and with a certainty of success. 
With cunning and military force he over- 
threw the government at Paris November 
9, 1799, and was made Dictator of France. 
Shortly afterward the constitution was 
revised by him and his friends and the 
whole government was given into the 
hands of one man, the First Consul. 
Napoleon was chosen to fill this place. 
France lay at the feet of the little Corsican ; 
it was his to do with as he would. 




Napoleon, First Consul of France 



IN the days that followed Napoleon bore 
himself as the true servant of France. 
He apparently cared nothing for flat- 
tery or attention. His time was given up 
to straightening out the troubles of his 
country. Outside of the meeting of the 
council, which he attended three or four 
times a week, Napoleon spent the days of 
that winter in his cabinet, reading and 
writing letters, examining all the work he 
had ordered done, signing his documents 
with the short syllable ''Nap" or a great 
scrawling " N," talking, thinking, planning, 
and subduing the rebellious provinces. 

Sometimes he would drop his work and 
begin singing as he whittled the arm of his 
great chair; and then, acting, as he looked, 
more like an overgrown boy than the ruler 
of all France, he would start to his feet 
and suddenly announce some great plan 




for the improvement of the country, or 
describe rapidly some starthng scheme 
which soon after would astonish and dis- 
may the whole world. 

As the most powerful man in all France, 
he was, of course, flooded with requests for 
money and positions. Kindly, thought- 
fully, and sympathetically he answered 
these, wherever he felt that the cause was a 
just one or the suppliant worthy. 

One day he received a letter from an old 
man who had been a friend of Charles 
Bonaparte, and had lived in Ajaccio when 
Napoleon was a schoolboy. He had lent 
Monsieur Bonaparte twenty-five louis to 
meet some expense connected with Napo- 
leon's work at Brienne. Napoleon's father 
was tmable to pay the debt, and after his 
death the old friend would not hear of 
Madame Bonaparte's paying it. Old and 
poor, he now wrote to Napoleon. The 
First Consul was overcome with emotion 
when he read the letter, and turning quickly 
to Bourrienne, who was now his secretary, 
he said : 




Bourrienne, this is sacred! Do not 
lose a minute. Send the old man ten times 
the sum." 

Mindful of the distress which he had 
seen in the provinces, where the people 
were in a turmoil of civil strife and at the 
same time in danger of foreign invasion; 
where the land was left uncultivated that 
all able-bodied men might go to war; 
where hunger and disease were wide- 
spread, Napoleon determined to make 
peace, if possible, with England and 
Austria, the two foreign enemies. While 
these efforts for peace were being made, 
however, Napoleon was preparing himself 
for war, if it had to come. His offers were 
rejected by these countries. The great 
maps which belonged to him were brought 
out and spread on his study floor, and 
Napoleon, on his hands and knees with 
pencil, compass, and measure, went over 
the countries he expected to invade, inch 
by inch, until every step his army was 
'to take was perfectly known. Even the 
battles were fought over and over on his 





Napoleon 



study floor with black and red-headed pins 
to represent the different armies. 

''Time is everything" was one of Napo- 
leon's great rules of warfare. As soon as 
he saw that France must fight, he began, 
with the secrecy which he always kept 
concerning his military plans, to gather his 
forces. Before the people realized what 
was to happen, the French troops were on 
the march and the Little Corporal's plan 
was evident. He intended to lead his men 
across the Alps. France and the world 
stood aghast at the daring of the venture. 

Of the three passes through the moun- 
tains, one was guarded by the Austrians. 
By a feint Napoleon directed the attention 
of the enemy to a second. The central 
pass was left without defense. It was 
along this road that Napoleon led his army, 
undaunted by difficulties that seemed to 
the bravest to be unconquerable. The 
whole army — infantry, cavalry, baggage, 
artillery — passed along narrow paths where 
even the mountain goats picked their way 
with care. Man by man, horse by horse, 



The Little Corsican 



97 



with the artillery in pieces and dragged in 
hollow trunks of trees, they struggled on. 
Napoleon in his gray great-coat, led them 
all. At times the trail passed along the 
very edge of a dizzy precipice, 
while overhead great masses of 
snow and tottering rocks hung, 
ready to fall. 

When the summits of the 
mountains were reached the 
soldiers coasted down the slopes. 
This was great fun, and was only 
stopped when the mud put an 
end to the snow. Coming to a 
little mountain town in posses- 
sion of the Austrians, the horses' 
feet and the wheels of the can- 
non were bound in straw, and 
the army passed through the streets at 
night, under the very nose of the Austrian 
fort, without being discovered. Nothing 
stopped them; enthusiastic, fearless, dar- 
ing, on they went until they reached the 
sunny plains of Italy. It was no wonder 
that the greatest generals of that time and 



=i^ 




The gray riding coat 
and little hat worn 
by Napoleon dur- 
ing his last cam- 
paigns. 



98 



Napoleon 



^ 



since looked upon the achievement as a 
miracle, and that the people of Paris said 
in bewilderment : 

"The First Consul pointed his finger at 
the frozen summits and they bowed their 
heads." 

With such a beginning the campaign 
could not help being successful. The vic- 
tory at Marengo was won June 14, 1800, 
and the Austrians were again driven from 
Italy. In the meantime the French army 
had been equally successful against the 
Austrians in the Rhine valley, and France 
was rid of one enemy In 1802 England 
also agreed to Napoleon's 
terms and France was at peace 
with the world. 

But long before this peace 
had been made, in fact as soon 
as the Little Corporal had been 
made First Consul, the people 
of France had begun to feel 
that a new and better freedom 
had come to them and their 
country. Directing the affairs 



Napoleon addressing the giant 
infantryman. 





of a state was new work for the soldier 
Napoleon, but to many people what he did 
as a statesman for France is more wonder- 
ful than his brilliant campaigns. That a 
man who had spent his childhood in mili- 
tary schools and his manhood in army 
camps should have the necessary knowl- 
edge to carry on the affairs of state, seemed 
impossible. But Napoleon in his dreams 
of an eastern empire had worked out his 
ideas of a government, and his life-long 
study of people had helped him to make 
those ideas practical and beneficial. 

But such a state as France was when it 
gave itself into the hands of Napoleon! 
The treasury was empty and the country 
was bankrupt. Taxes were high and it was 
next to impossible to collect them. The 
factories of the country were standing idle, 
and the fields were laid bare by the many 
rebellions that had swept France since 1 789. 

Napoleon took up his new work with the 
same boldness and self command that 
marked him in his military life. A quiet, 
honest man was given charge of the finan- 




100 



Napoleon 



cial affairs, and the credit of France was 
^1 soon reestablished. Napoleon insisted that 
the taxes should pay all expenses, and yet 
the people of France had never before been 
so free from the burden of taxation. Where 
a laboring man had had only eighteen or 
nineteen francs left after paying his taxes, 
he now had, under Napoleon's rule, 
seventy-nine. 

The trait which had made the little Cor- 
sican rebel against extravagance at school 
showed itself now in the strict watch he 
kept on all his officials, and the carefulness 
with which he guarded the expenses of his 
own household. Every man was made to 
earn the money his country paid him, and 
no one worked harder than the First Con- 
sul himself, who sometimes slept but one 
hour in the twenty-four. Nothing was too 
small to receive his personal attention. 
Once, when asked if he could not pass 
some of his work over to a secretary, he 
answered : 

"Later, perhaps. Now it is impossible. 
I must answer for all." 




Not satisfied at relieving the actual need 
of his country, Napoleon was constantly 
at work on improvements, for which the 
French will have good cause to remember 
and bless him long after the glory of his 
victories has ceased to thrill them. -Roads 
and public buildings were restored and new 
ones built ; education along every line w^as 
encouraged . Remembering the poor train- 
ing and easy lives the boys had had at 
Paris, Napoleon reorganized the military 
schools and saw that the strictest discipline 
was enforced; the renowned University of 
France was established and many private 
schools were organized. Religion, which 
had vanished from France with the coming 
of the Revolution, was again respected; 
churches were rebuilt, and the poor people, 
who had all along said their prayers in 
silence and had longed for a place to wor- 
ship, blessed the name of Napoleon. He 
also gave to France a body of laws, clear, 
practical, and systematic, which alone 
was sufficient to make his name famous. 

The last work was the most difficult of 



=1^ 



102 



Napoleon 



all for Napoleon, for it was necessary to 
(S?!! have a knowledge of law to oversee and 
grasp the discussions that came up. In 
order to do this Napoleon would study 
far into the night, preparing himself for 
the next day. So well could he fii^ his 
mind on one thing, so thoroughly did 
he master his subject, that the able 
lawyers and statesmen who had been 
selected by him to draw up the code 
were often puzzled to answer his shrewd 
questions. 

Outside of the present boundaries of 
France, in the countries which Napoleon 
conquered and brought under his rule, the 
First Consul also carried on his work of 
improvement. Passes were made through 
the Alps so that the journey can now be 
made with comparative ease; canals were 
built, harbors improved, industries estab- 
lished and encouraged. 

So great was the work done by this one 
man, so small in body but with such won- 
derful endurance, that the France which, 
at the beginning of his reign, had lain deso- 



The Little Corsican 



loj 



late before the discouraged people, had 
now, as a countryman contentedly said : 

''Nothing to ask from heaven, but that 
the sun may continue to shine, the rain to 
fall on our fields, and the earth to render 
the seed fruitful." 

If Napoleon had been satisfied with this 
great work of improvement, all would have 
been well, but his love of glory and of ac- 
tion could not long be satisfied by these 
works of peace. As successful in running 
the affairs of a nation as he had been in his 
military campaigns, he began to feel that 
a republic was too narrow a field in which 
to display his brilliant powers. 
- In 1802 he had himself elected First 
Consul for life. But Napoleon was not 
content that the power which he had 
brought to the Bonaparte family should 
end with his life. There was only one way 
to prevent this and that was to abandon 
the republic and establish an empire. 

As if to aid him in the carrying out of 
this desire, the French people had begun 
to ask themselves about the fate of France 



=i^ 



104 



Napoleon 



when the First Consul should be no more. 
i?ir This question had been caused by the 
numerous attempts against the life of 
Napoleon. These attacks, made by peo- 
ple who were jealous of the great man's 
power, only strengthened the devotion of 
his followers. At last, after much schem- 
ing on the part of Napoleon and his friends, 
it was decided to establish an empire, over 
which Napoleon and, after him, his de- 
scendants should rule. 




N\A.POLEON was crowned in the 
cathedral of Notre Dame, Decem- 
ber 2, 1804. The day began cold 
and rainy, but just as the procession started 
from the Tuilenes the sun burst out 
from the clouds. The courtiers came first 
dressed with all the magnificence which 
Napoleon insisted on in his newly made 
court. After them came the marshals of 
the empire, tneir jeweled decorations flash- 
ing brilliantly in the sunshine. They were 
followed by the high ornjers of the court. 
The emperor came last. The great crowds 
of people thronged the streets, pushing 
each other hither and thither, some laugfh- 
ing, others in a bad humor from their 
wait through the long rainy morning. 
But as Napoleon came in sight, all dis- 
comforts, all other thoughts were forgot- 



Mm. 



io6 



Napoleon 



ff\ 



ten, the crowd became as one man, and 
cheer after cheer rang down the gay streets. 
Within the cathedral all the great people 
of France had gathered to give their bless- 
ing to the man who had brought them such 
vast territories and wonderful victories, 
and had restored their country to peace 
and prosperity. As they waited for his 
coming, the great Pope of Rome entered 
and walked slowly to his place, while the 
solemn chanting of many priests filled the 
great building. Shortly after, the firing of 
cannon told the people of Paris that Napo- 
leon was on his way. 

When he arrived at Notre 
Dame he at once ascended 
the throne before the grand 
altar. Josephine stood be- 
side him, and around them 
were many of the powerful 
rulers of Europe, who had 
come to honor the corona- 
tion of the man who filled 
them with amazement at his genius and 
terrified them with his victories. Calmly 





and reverently Napoleon stood, while the 
Pope prayed- 

''Diffuse, O Lord, by our hands, the 
treasures of your grace and benediction on 
your servant Napoleon, whom, in spite of 
our personal unworthiness, we this day 
anoint emperor, in your name." • 

As he closed the prayer the Pope turned 
to take the crown from the altar in order 
to place it on the head of Napoleon, but 
before he could do so. Napoleon seized it 
and placed it upon his own head, while his 
face lighted up with an expression of power 
and fearlessness which the people who saw 
it never forgot. 

When it came time for Josephine to be 
crowned, she stepped down from her 
throne, and, ascending the steps toward 
the altar, knelt before Napoleon with her 
hands clasped and her eyes full of tears. 
Napoleon took the little crown intended 
for the empress, put it first on his own head, 
and then Hghtly and gracefully placed it 
on the head of Josephine. 

On the first day of the next April the 



io8 



Napoleon 



emperor, accompanied by a great train of 
^1 officials, started for Italy, where he was to 
be crowned king of the country which he 
had twice rescued for France. The coro- 
nation took place in the great cathedral at 
Milan, and the crown used was the heavy 
iron one which for so many years had been 
used in the coronation of the kings of 
Lombardy. Here, as at Notre Dame, 
Napoleon seized the crown and placed it 
on his head, while he repeated loudly the 
words engraved on it : 

" God gives it to me ; beware who touches 
it." 

Just a year before the coronation the 
treaty of peace with England had been 
broken. Both countries were to blame, 
and both began elaborate preparations for 
war. Napoleon assembled an army at 
Boulogne and for months threatened the 
island of England with an attack. He was 
forced to give up this plan, however, on 
account of the lack of a good fleet and of a 
new combination that was formed against 
France, for after the French Empire was 




The Little Corsican 



lOQ 



established and Italy came under the con- 
trol of France, Austria and Russia became 
jealous of the power of Napoleon and joined 
England in a plan to subdue France. 

The instant that news reached Napoleon 
of this combination of forces, he was on 
his feet and ready for action. Messengers 
were sent flying to Italy, to the Rhine 




From a lithograph by Raffet 

Napoleon reviewing the Old Guard, the pride of the armies of France. 

states, and to Boulogne, where a great 
army had been in camp for months, await- 
ing the emperor's orders to descend on 
England. In a marvelously short time 
the whole French army was on its way to 



=^ 



no 



Napoleon 



the Rhine. After that river was crossed 
speed meant everything, if the Austrians 
were to be crippled before the Russians 
could unite with them. 

In the face of terrible weather, the sol- 
diers moved forward in response to their 
little general, under whom many of them 
had. fought at Lodi and Marengo. There 
was no rest day or night, and Napoleon was 
in their midst at all times. For one week 
he did not take his boots off. He talked, 
he explained their position in an enemy's 
country, he cheered them with promises of 
victory, while sometimes they stood knee 
deep in icy slush. 

His promises were kept, for the Aus- 
trians, bewildered by the swiftness of the 
march and deceived by certain moves of 
the French troups, were defeated, and 
compelled to surrender 60,000 prisoners, 
120 guns, 90 colors, and over 30 generals. 
It was a victory gained by legs, as Napo- 
leon said, for scarcely four weeks had 
passed since the French army crossed the 
Rhine. 





The Little Corsican 



Before the Austrians had time to recover 
their breath from this defeat the French 
were on their way again, and by the middle 
of the next month, November, Vienna was 
surrounded, and the royal family had fled 
in fear and confusion. 

The Austrian army now retreated rapidly 
to the east, and managed to meet the Rus- 
sian forces which were coming to their aid 
under Alexander I., the young czar. The 
combined force of the enemy now num- 
bered 90,000 men. Napoleon had about 
10,000 less and was in the midst of a 
hostile country. 

Feeling that victory must be his, Alex- 
ander marched against Napoleon, and the 
battle of Austerlitz was fought on the sec- 
ond of December, 1805. At four o'clock 
that morning Napoleon was on his horse, 
waiting for the dense fog to lift, to see the 
position of the enemy's lines. At eight he 
rode along in front of his magnificent army, 
inspiring his men with his faith in their 
strength and fmally giving the signal for 
attack with the command : 




Close the campaign with a clap of 
thunder." And they did. Before night 
the enemy were driven flying from the 
field, and the Austrians were compelled to 
sue for peace, while the Russians were too 
crippled to continue the struggle. 

The emperor was back in Paris by the 
first of the year 1806, within three months 
after leaving it, but not to rest. England 
was still to be subdued and Prussia had 
joined her in the attempt to crush France. 
All through the spring and summer of 1806 
Napoleon tried to make peace without war, 
but all attempts failed, and by the end of 
September the grand army of France was 
again on the march, this time toward 
central Germany. 

Napoleon had made his preparations so 
secretly, it being believed until the last 
minute that he was going on a long hunt, 
that when the French suddenly appeared 
on the flanks of the Prussian 
army the latter were over- 
whelmed and forced to re- 
treat. The battle of Jena 



Battle of Jena, 1806, 
"Napol." 






was fought, bringing the French another 
great victory, and on the twenty- fifth of 
October Napoleon marched into Berhn with 
flying colors. The 
Prussian king fled to 
the Russians for help 
and protection. Na- 
poleon followed and 
the struggle continued 
until the following 
summer, when it was 
closed by the battle 
of Friedland, June 14. 
Napoleon wrote to Josephine after this 
battle : 

" I write you only a few words, for I 
am very tired. I have been bivouack- 
ing for several days. My children 
have worthily celebrated the anniver- 
sary of Marengo. The battle of Fried- 
land will be just as celebrated and as 
glorious for my people. The whole 
Russian army routed, 80 guns cap- 
tured, 30,000 men taken prisoners or 
' killed, with 2 5 generals ; the Russian 
guard annihilated; it is the worthy 



As Emperor, battle of Friedland, 
1807, "N" 



114 



Napoleon 



^ 



sister of Marengo, Austerlitz, and Jena. 
The bulletin will tell you the rest. 
My loss is not large. I successfully 
outmanoeuvered the enemy. 

"Napoleon." 



It was no wonder that Napoleon was 
tired. For, while carrying on the cam- 
paign of the last two years, he had con- 
tinued his orders concerning public im- 
provements, and, although in the heart 
of an enemy's country, he knew every 
detail of the state affairs of France, and 
controlled them as if in the council cham- 
ber at Paris. 

The peace of Tilsit closed the war with 
Prussia and Russia, and brought Napoleon 
to the height of his power. The little 
Corsican was now Emperor of France and 
King of Italy; Protector of the Rhine 
States, and Mediator of Switzerland. 
Central Europe lay prostrate at his feet, 
while Russia was now his ally. It was not 
strange that all Europe 
looked upon the Little Cor- 
poral with fear. Country 




As Emperor, 1804, "Napoleon. 




after country was being added to his realm, 
and those that were not already under his 
control trembled at his power. 

Many of the vast domains conquered by 
him were ruled by his brothers, sisters, and 
friends; Louis had been made king of 
Holland; Joseph, king of Naples; Jerome, 
king of Westphalia. But all were answer- 
able to the emperor, who knew exactly 
what was being done in every country over 
which the French colors floated. 




Chapter X 



The Tide Begins to Turn 



ENGLAND still remained uncon- 
quered. That fact was the one 
thorn in the flesh of the great 
" King of Kings." All through the months 
that he was busy crushing Prussia and 
Russia he was thinking, scheming, working 
to humble the proud British. His task 
was difficult, for while he had been on his 
march to Vienna, the English fleet had 
met the allied French and Spanish fleets 
off Trafalgar and had completely de- 
stroyed them. 

Napoleon was compelled to see that his 
power extended only over land forces. 
It was impossible to carry the war directly 
into the island kingdom. The plan he 
at last settled upon was one of the most 
despotic and daring the world has ever 
known. All the ports of the European 
continent which were in any way con- 



?^g^ 



The Little Corsican 



117 



trolled by Napoleon were to be closed 
against the commerce of England. Noth- 
ing was to be received from that country 
and nothing sold to it. Napoleon's power 
extended along the whole coast line of 
Europe, except that of Denmark and 
Portugal. Such an order if obeyed, could 
not help but bring want to many people. 
With the issuing of this command the 
welfare of his subjects became a secondary 
matter with the emperor; he thought only 
of his desire to revenge himself on England. 
The suffering of a 

starving people 

meant nothing to him 

in the face of this 

overwhelming desire. 

Napoleon was beginn- 
ing to forget in his 

ambition and in his 

hatred of England, 

that his chief power 

lay in the love and 

allegiance of those 

whom he controlled. 



A General of Cavalry. 



% 




ii8 



Napoleon 



ff 



In this unusual and strange forgetfulness 
he showed his greatest weakness as a ruler 

Portugal refused to close her ports at 
Napoleon's command, and with that re- 
fusal the emperor's trouble began. War 
with Portugal was followed by war with 
Spain, and, while engaged in trying to over- 
come the stubborn resistance of the patri- 
otic Spanish peasants, the treachery of 
some of his supposed friends called Napo- 
leon back to Paris. In the meantime, 
Austria, knowing that Napoleon was being 
hard pressed by these wars, had collected 
her army and started with forced marches 
to reach the Rhine before the emperor 
could collect his forces. 

It was the twelfth of April, 1809, when 
Napoleon heard that the Austrians were 
nearing France. Five days later he had 
gathered his army from all parts of his vast 
empire, was ready for battle, and by the 
fifth of July the Austrians were again forced 
to accept Napoleon's terms of peace. In 
1 810 this last treaty was sealed by the 
marriage of the emperor with Marie Louise 



I 




The Little Corsican 




of Austria, Josephine having been divorced 
from Napoleon a short time before. 

At the close of the war with Russia in 
1807, when Frederick William III. of Prus- 
sia and Alexander of Russia had met 
Napoleon at Tilsit to draw up the treaty of 
peace, Napoleon had taken a great fancy 
to Alexander, and the two men became 
friends. The old king of Prussia, over- 
come by his great losses, was something 
of a drawback to the enjoyment of the 
younger men, and often, after the three 
had dined together, Napoleon and Alex- 
ander would go away by themselves, as 
two schoolboys might do, and talk and 
enjoy themselves until far into the night. 
The two had made many plans in the 
days that they had spent together, and 
Alexander promised to help Napoleon 
crush England. Later on a marriage be- 
tween the emperor and the czar's sister, 
Anna Paulo wna, was discussed and ap- 
proved of. 

But when Napoleon came to select his 
second wife from the list of European 




120 



Napoleon 



princesses, there was a lack of enthtisiasm 
on the part of the Russian czar, and Napo- 
leon, angered at the delay, chose Marie 
Louise of Austria. His haste in doing so 
was looked upon as a slight by Alexander, 
and the friendship of the two great men 




The state carriage used by Napoleon during the regime of the 

Empire. 

came to an end. For several months the 
czar had not been strictly enforcing the 
decree concerning the closing of Russian 
ports against England's goods, and it soon 




became evident that war would have to 
come between the two nations — Russia 
and France. 

Napoleon, with his usual decision, began 
his preparations to invade Russia, although 
he felt most deeply the breaking of his 
friendship with the young czar. With an 
army which has never been equaled in 
magnificence, the emperor started from 
Dresden in May, 1 8 1 2 . There were troops 
from all the conquered nations, side by 
side with his own French soldiers, making 
up an army of 1,100,000 men. Over one- 
half of this large force was kept as reserve 
to defend the towns and country which 
the advancing army expected to conquer. 
But although Napoleon managed the cam- 
paign with the same assurance of victory 
as in former years, although the same 
strict discipline was now enforced, and 
although he had an army under his con- 
trol that was the wonder of all Europe, 
he was unable to conquer the Russians. 
' After crossing the Niemen River the 
French army began to meet with difficul- 



122 



'Napoleon 



ff 



ties which were new to them, and with 
which Napoleon was unable to cope. As 
fast as the French advanced the Russians 
retreated, leading the French farther and 
farther into a hostile country which was 
laid bare by the retreating army, leaving 
nothing for the oncoming French to seize. 
All the time that this chase was being car- 
ried on, scattered troops from the Russian 
army hung on the flanks of the French, 
picking off man after man, engaging in 
skirmishes with divisions of the French 
army, but refusing to engage in a pitched 
battle. 

At last Smolensk came in sight, and 
here the first battle of the campaign was 
fought, August 1 2 . The town was taken by 
Napoleon, but with a loss of 12,000 men, 
and when the French army marched into 
Smolensk it was found to be nothing but 
burning ruins. The Russians had fired it 
before leaving. Discouraged, with a scar- 
city of supplies, and suffering from sick- 
ness, the French had nothing left but to 
follow the still retreating Russians. 




Moscow was reached in the middle of 
September, and the French entered the 
city with great rejoicing. There were food 
and shelter for all and they thought the 
long march was at an end for the present. 
That night Moscow was burned to the 
ground, set on fire by the few Russians who 
had remained in the city. 

The days which followed increased the 
already terrible suffering of the French. 
And still Napoleon would not retreat. He 
wrote to France of the loss Russia had 
sustained in the burning of Moscow. He 
wrote to Alexander, hoping to make peace. 
Btit Alexander had taken a vow that he 
would not make peace as long 
as there was a single foe on 
Russian ground ; and he kept 
the vow. 

Napoleon saw only two 
ways open to him : to keep his 
troops starving and freezing in 
the ruined city through a Rus- 
sian winter or to go back to 
France. To go on across the 



A Russian grenadier. 





124 



Napoleon 



' ^ great frozen plains of Russia in pursuit of 

ffll the enemy was utter folly. Anything was 

better than to sit quietly by while the army 

starved, and Napoleon ordered the retreat 

toward France to begin. 

In the retreat, as in the advance, the 
dreaded Cossacks hindered the progress of 
the French, while the days grew steadily 
colder and colder. The climax was reached 
at Smolensk, where Napoleon had ordered 
that provisions and clothing should be 
waiting for the destitute army. Starved 
and half frozen, the soldiers had struggled 
on with the hope of relief, only to find, on 
reaching the city, that Napoleon's order 
had not been obeyed, and that they must 
take up their march again with no prospect 
of relief. 

It was too much for even these brave 
men to endure. Angry, rebellious, and 
disheartened, the army turned into a sullen 
mob, and straggled back to France as best 
it could, each man looking out for himself ; 
discipline became a thing of the past. 
When the Niemen was reached only about 



The Little Corsican 



125 



40,000 men were left of the glorious army 
which had started out so full of hope and 
strength but a few months before, and, 
of this ghastly remnant, many had barely 
strength enough to reach a place where 
they could die in peace. 

Never did the unconquerable will of 
Napoleon show itself so clearly as in the 
days following this terrible retreat. Self- 
reliant, commanding, fearless, he returned 
to Paris and almost immediately began his 
preparations to enter Russia again in the 
spring. To no one did he acknowledge 
that he had been defeated; it was always 
the Russians whose cities had been burned, 
whose country had been laid waste. Once 
only did he show that underneath the bold 
appearance there was a heart that was 
bleeding for the noble men who had per- 
ished so pitiably on the snow-covered fields 
of Russia. He had been giving the legisla- 
ture of France an account of his campaign, 
calmly assuring them that while the victory 
had been hardly won, yet won it had been. 
Perhaps some vivid picture of the terrible 



=1^ 



126 



Napoleon 



suffering he had seen, perhaps the remem- 
^1 brance of the grand army he had led to an 
ignominious death, came suddenly before 
him, for all at once he stopped, then went 
on huskily: 

" In a few nights everything changed. I 
have suffered great losses. They would 
have broken my heart if I had been acces- 
sible to any other feelings than the interest, 
the glory, and the future of my people." 

In spite of the stories that each day were 
being brought back to the French people 
by the straggling, ragged remnant of the 
grand army, the Senate voted that Napo- 




Russian peasants attacking stragglers from the French army in the 
disorganized retreat from Moscow. 



The Little Corsican 



J 2) 



leon should have a new army of 350,000 
men, fully equipped, to meet the Russians. 
In the meantime, Alexander himself, with 
his army, had crossed the Niemen and, 
joined by England, Spain, Prussia, Sweden, 
and Austria, prepared to defeat Napoleon. 
A great terror of the Little Corporal had 
taken hold of all these powerful nations. 
It was not France they had combined 
against, but it had been proved that not 
one, or two, or three countries could outwit 
or subdue Napoleon. So this great alli- 
ance had been formed, with an army of 
800,000 men, to crush one man, so great 
was the fear and jealousy his power excited. 
And they took the time when the grand 
army of France was crushed by the ter- 
rible Russian campaign to do this work. 



=^ 




Chapter XI 



Failure and Exile 



IN the face of overwhelming difficulties 
the first part of the year 1813 brought 
victory to Napoleon and restored hope 
to the French, while at the same time the 
alHes were seized with a fear that perhaps 
the Little Corporal would triumph in spite 
of them. But it was impossible that an 
army of 350,000, even when commanded 
by Napoleon, could long stand against 
800,000. The end was hastened by the 
desertion of many troops from the con- 
quered states. Weakened by these losses, 
and overwhelmed by the great armies sur- 
rounding him. Napoleon lost by the end of 
the year what he had gained at the first. 

The end came at Leipsic, where a great 
three days' battle was fought. The French 
army was crushed, Germany was lost, and 
Napoleon was forced to flee across the 
Rhine. 



The Little Corsican 



i2g 



France was now at the feet of the enemy. 
The country which but a few years before 
had ''blossomed like the rose," now lay 
desolate and barren. Men had gone out 
from the homes of France in search of 
glory and in defense of their country, only 
to find death or to return as helpless crip- 
ples. War in its awful greed had drained 
the fair land, leaving starvation and death 
where plenty had been. The crushed 
people moaned and cried out from their 
stricken homes that the hopeless, cruel 
struggle might end. But even with all 
Europe ready to march upon French 
ground, with a country back of him 
urging him to peace, with many of his 
brave generals insisting that defeat was 
sure. Napoleon would not agree to the 
terms offered by the allied countries. 

The struggle began again in January, 
1 814, when Napoleon marched out of Paris 
at the head of 60,000 men, to meet an army 
of nearly 600,000. For two months he 
fought desperately and never more bril- 
liantly. In spite of the great numbers 



=^ 



IJO 



Napoleon 



against him, in spite of disheartened gen- 
erals and the hopeless terror and panic at 
Paris, he very nearly drove the allies from 
the country. But it was impossible, 
hampered as he was, to make any lasting 
impression on such great forces, ten times 
the number of his faithful little army, and 
the allies closed in steadily day after day 
about the Little Corporal. 

On the thirtieth of March Paris 
surrendered, and the next day the 
French greeted the allies as they 
marched through the streets, with 
cries of ''Long live the sovereigns! 
Long live the Emperor Alexander !" 
Napoleon, who had brought them 
victory after victory, who had made 
France one of the foremost coun- 
tries in the world, who had spared 
neither time, strength, nor energy 
in defense of his people, was now 
deserted ; deserted by all except his army, 
who, still faithful to their Little Corporal, 
surrounded and protected him at Fontaine- 
bleau, while all over France the soldiers 




One of the Old 
Guard. 



The Little Corsican 



131 



who were not already with their general 
were making every effort to reach him. 

But the men whom Napoleon had placed 
in positions of trust in the government, and 
in whom he had placed his greatest faith, 
had for months been plotting and waiting 
to rid themselves of the man whose power 
they envied and feared. The common 
people, whom Napoleon, knowing that a 
country's strength lay in this class, had 
made the greatest efforts to win, were worn 
out by the long struggle and cared for noth- 
ing except peace. They were told that 
peace could only come when Napoleon was 
out of the country; that so long as their 
fearless emperor, the man of iron will, of 
undaunted perseverance, of boundless am- 
bition, was in France he would fight and 
his army with him. The common people 
hstened and believed. 

It only remained to win the army. No- 
where has Napoleon's attractive person- 
ality shown itself more strongly than here. 
The officers of his grand old army knew 
that peace should liave been made long 



=Ti 



132 



Napoleon 



ago ; the welfare of the country demanded 
^1 it, and the overwhelming forces of the 
enemy made it folly to continue the 
struggle. They knew that Napoleon had 
been the cause, the sole cause, of the hope- 
less war. Still had he not brought France, 
and the aiTny of France, through nights of 
rebellion and great suffermg to days of 
prosperity and glory? Should they turn 
against him now, when he stood alone? 
Every method of persuasion was brought 
to bear upon the faithful soldiers, but none 
proved successful until they were told that 
it was the will of their country that they 
should lay down their arms 

Finally one of Napoleon's oldest and 
most loyal generals deserted, and the army 
gave up the contest. Fearless, full of faith 
in himself and his army, Napoleon had kept 
heart until now. But now, defeated, de- 
serted by all in whom he had placed his 
faith, surrounded by enemies, pushed to 
the wall with every hand against him, he 
lost courage and, sick at heart, attempted 
to end his life. But the poison he took 




failed in its work ; even death turned from 
him and left him to finish the struggle. 

Alexander refused to treat for peace 
with Napoleon or any of his family. The 
last blow had fallen on the emperor. If 
peace was to be made he would have to 
give up the throne. On April ii, 1814, 
Napoleon signed the following document: 

"The allied powers having proclaimed 
that the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is 
the only obstacle to the reestablishment of 
peace in Europe, the Emperor Napoleon, 
faithful to his oath, declares that he 
renounces for himself and his heirs, the 
throne of France and Italy, and that there 
is no personal sacrifice, even that of his life, 
which he is not ready to make in the inter- 
est of France." 

Even stripped of all power and support, 
it was not considered safe by the allies and 
the treacherous friends of Napoleon that 
he should remain in France, and at last it 
was decided that he should be sent to Elba, 
a little island lying between Corsica and the 
coast of Italy. After this decision was made 



10 



T^34 



Napoleon 



'^ there remained nothing for Napoleon to "do" 
(Jir but say farewell to his soldiers at Fontaine- 
bleau. These men, still devoted to their 
commander, but believing that they were 
best serving their country by refusing to 
support him in carrying on the war, were 
overcome with emotion as Napoleon said : 



if 




After the painting by Horace Temet 

Napoleon bidding farewell to the Imperial Guard at Foniainehleau 
April 20, 1814. 

''Farewell, my children! I would clasp 
you all to my heart; let me at least kiss 
vour flas:'" 

One of his bravest generals sprang for- 




The Little Corsican 




ward at these words and embraced the 
Little Corporal, while many veterans stood 
with the tears running down their cheeks as 
they thought of Lodi, of Marengo, of Aus- 
terhtz; of the man who had led them on 
to victory and fame, sharing their discom- 
forts, inspiring, loving, trusting, sympa- 
thizing with them at all times and in all 
places, and who now stood before them 
ruined, deserted, exiled. 

On the twentieth of April Napoleon left 
Fontainebleau for Elba. He had been 
appointed governor of the island, and no 
sooner was his future home and work 
decided upon than his gloomy mood disap- 
peared. He immediately began planning 
his new life with as much energy as he had 
ever shown. If the people of France did not 
want him, the people of his new country 
did, and they received him with all the 
honor the little island could show. Al- 
though the welcome must have seemed 
small and mean compared with the grand- 
eur of his past receptions in France, Napo- 
leon accepted it as heartily as it was given. 



ij6 



Napoleon 



It was not many days before the con- 
ff\\ queror of nations was apparently as deeply 
absorbed in the affairs of Elba as he had 
been in those of France. Never had the 
little island thrived as it did under Napo- 
leon's government. Improvements were 
begun everywhere and carried on rapidly, 




The villa at Porto Ferrajo. Napoleon's residence while at the 
island of Elba. 

with the new governor's attention given to 
every detail. The people flocked to him 
with their suggestions and petitions, and 
he listened to them all, while he advised 
and promised relief. The httle army was 
drilled and disciplined with as much care 
as the grand army of France. 




The Little Corsican 




If Napoleon felt the littleness of his king- 
dom, if his life was a lonely one, he made 
no sign; but throughout his stay at Elba 
he kept stored away carefully a stock of 
fireworks, awaiting the coming of his wife 
and his little boy, the King of Rome, as he 
was called ; they were never used, for his 
wife and child never came. His mother 
and sister Pauline came, however, and what 
brought the greatest joy to the heart of 
Napoleon was the company of twenty-six 
members of his old National Guard, who 
had left France to join their beloved 
general. • 




A Hopeless Restoration 



BUT while absorbed in his new country, 
news had reached Napoleon of dis- 
content at Paris. The restored 
Bourbon king was not bringing the longed- 
for happiness and prosperity to the French. 
With the greatest secrecy Napoleon began 
planning to go back to Paris — back to the 
people who had turned against him, but 
whose hearts he felt were still * his. So 
quietly did he make his preparations that 
the French were unaware of his intention 
until he landed at Cannes, on the southern 
coast of France, March i, 1815. 

Accompanied by only 800 of his vet- 
erans who had been with him at Elba, 
Napoleon began his march to Paris the 
night after he landed. The very daring 
and fearlessness that permitted the man, 
deserted and exiled by them, to thrust 
himself again in their midst, awakened all 




the old-time enthusiasm and admiration 
of the French people for their emperor. 
Such faith in their good will could meet 
with but one response, and the whole 
south of France threw itself at the feet of 
Napoleon. Assured by their support the 
emperor now scattered broadcast the pam- 
phlets he had prepared to recall his army : 

"Coine and range yourself under the 
standard of your chief; his existence is 
composed of yours ; his interests, his hon- 
ors, and his glory are yours. Victory will 
march at double-quick time. The eagle 
with the national colors will fly 
from steeple to steeple to the 
towers of Notre Dame. Then you 
will be able to show your scars 
with honor; then you will be able 
to boast of what you have done; 
you will be the liberators of your country.'* 

And they came. Man by man, com- 
pany by company, regiment by regiment. 
There was no withstanding the power, the 
faith of their bold general. At one place 
he found a battalion of his old soldiers 





drawn up to oppose him. A messenger 
was sent to make terms with them. They 
would not Hsten. Without hesitation Na- 
poleon marched straight before them, and, 
throwing up his hand, called ' 

"What, my friends; do you not know 
me? I am your emperor; if there be a 
soldier among you who will kill his emperor 
he may do it. Here I am ! " 

What answer could they make to the 
general who had bivouacked with them 
through summer and winter, who had 
shared with them his very food that they 
might not want? 

"Long live the emperor!" burst from 
the throats of the loyal men, and, even as 
they shouted, out came, as if by magic, old 
soiled cockades of the tricolor. Napoleon's 
emblem. The white ones of the Bourbons 
vanished and the loved knots took their 
place. 

Farther on a force was met whose gen- 
eral had promised the Bourbons to "bring 
back Napoleon in an iron cage." No 
sooner did the old veteran see his former 




leader than he broke from the head of the 
lines, and rushing forward clasped Napo- 
leon in his arms. 

Napoleon had not counted too much on 
the love of the French. Their hearts were 
undoubtedly his and never had their devo- 
tion been shown so freely as at this time, 
when he came to them from exile and dis- 
grace. It is no wonder that, when asked 
what was the happiest period of his life as 
emperor, he said: 

"The march from Cannes to Paris." 
So completely had he won the country, 
that the Bourbons fled as he neared Paris, 
and Napoleon reen- 
tered that city amid 
the greatest rejoicing. 
But the one thing that 
would have brought 
Napoleon the deepest 
joy, and toward which 
he had been looking 
the most eagerly, was 
missing : that was the 
restoration of Marie 

An Imperial Trooper. 




142 



Napoleon 



Louise and the little King of Rome, who 
^r were with the Austrians. The disappoint- 
ment grew all the greater as the days 
passed and the emperor found that his 
wife had promised never to see him again. 

It was not long before the opposing 
party, which had been cowed into tempo- 
rary subjection by the overwhelming 
triumph of Napoleon's return, raised its 
head again. At the same time the allies, 
in spite of Napoleon's promise to abide 
by the treaty of peace which had been 
made while he was at Elba, gathered their 
vast armies together and marched to crush 
the man whose mere presence was enough 
to draw army and people to his standard, 
strong in their renewed allegiance. 

In three months. Napoleon, with all his 
old-time vSwiftness and in face of the great- 
est difficulties, collected an army of 200,- 
000 men. The allies had 500,000. Even 
against such odds as these Napoleon held his 
own for a time, but it could not last long. 

The end came in June when the French 
met a part of the enemy near Brussels. 




After two days of hard fighting Napoleon 
reached Waterloo, where the great English 
general, Wellington, was drawn up to 
receive him. Napoleon, who had stood the 
long, hard campaigns of previous years, 
whose endurance was a wonder to all who 
knew him, was worn out and not himself. 
And for some reason the general who had 
never before failed to know the exact loca- 
tion of every part of the enemy's force, 
was surprised by the strong reinforcements 
tiie allies received when least expected. 

With the superior numbers of the enemy 
and with such unexpected weakness on the 
part of their hitherto unconquerable com- 
mander, there could be but one result for 
the French. They were defeated, and so 
completely that even Napoleon accepted 
the bitter truth — his star had set forever. 

"I ought to have died at Waterloo," he 
afterward told a friend, "but the misfor- 
tune is that when a man most seeks death 
he cannot find it. Men were killed around 
me, before, behind, everywhere ; but there 
was no bullet for me." 



144 



Napoleon 



After the battle of Waterloo Napoleon 
^1 returned at once to Paris. He realized that 
it was useless to continue the struggle. 
There was continued plotting against him 
in Paris, and the allies declared that so 
long as Napoleon was emperor they would 
not cease to wage war against the ex- 
hausted country. Napoleon had already 
given to the French the best years of his 
life ; he had worked as no man ever worked 
before or since for the improvement of 
France, and had brought to his adopted 
country more glory in his short reign of 
ten years than any ruler in all French his- 
tory. 

There remained but one thing more for 
him to do, if peace was to come to his people. 
He must again step down from his throne, 
and not only that, but he must leave 
sunny France, his home, and his people 
forever. He again signed the act of abdi- 
cation and left Paris for Malmaison, which 
had been Josephine's home. Here a few 
friends helped him to plan for the future. 

Napoleon soon discovered that he would 




not be allowed to remain in France, so 
great was the fear of his influence. With 
all the European nations leagued against 
him, there remained but one country 
toward which he could turn for a refuge. 
That country was America. 

As soon as it was known that he wished 
to escape to the United States he received 
numerous offers of help from Americans 
who greatly admired the brave Napoleon. 
One plan was suggested by a rich merchant 
by which Napoleon was to hide in a hogs- 
head on board an American ship, and 
remain there until well out to sea. But 
this arrangement could only include Napo- 
leon ; his few faithful friends would be left 
in France. To this he would not con- 
sent and the plan was abandoned. 

A few days after leaving Paris, Napoleon 
tried to reach the French coast, hoping to 
find there some American ship that would 
carry himself and friends to the United 
States, but he found the coast so guarded 
by the English that he gave up all hope of 
escape. 



146 



Napoleon 



Napoleon now determined on a course 
^ which was characteristic of his fearless dis- 
position: he would place himself in the 
hands of his greatest enemy, England. As 
soon as this resolve was made he wrote the 
following note to the English ruler: 

" Royal Highness : Exposed to the 
factions which divide ray country and 
to the hostility of the greatest powers 
of Europe, I have closed my political 
career. I have come like Theristocles, 
to seek the hospitality of the British 
nation. I place myself under the pro- 
tection of their laws, which I claim 
from your Royal Highness as the most 
powerful, the most constant, and the 
most generous of my enemies. 

"Napoleon." 



Napoleon once said, in speaking of 
prisoners of war: 

"It is atrocious to insult brave men to 
whom the fate of arms has proved un- 
favorable." 

Believing in this principle, as he did, it 
was not strange that Napoleon should trust 



^5^ 



The Little Corsican 



H7 



himself to his greatest enemy. But Eng- 
land proved most unworthy of the trust 
and showed a want of generosity and 
an ignobleness which can be explained in 
only one way — the fear of Napoleon's 
power and ambitions which had thrown 
Europe into such suffering and danger 
through his reign. 

The Emperor left France on the English 
ship ''Bellerophon," the fifteenth of July, 
and was taken to Plymouth, England. 
No sooner had he reached that harbor 
than all his ideas of British hospitality 
were changed. The " Bellerophon/ ' was 
immediately surrounded by armed ships, 
every precaution was taken to prevent 
escape, and Napoleon was treated as a 
common prisoner, while the British dis- 
cussed what should be done with him. 
The man who had held all Europe at bay 
for years, who had proved himself an 
enemy worthy of the greatest respect, 
was now in their power. And what had 
brought him there? Surely not the care- 
ful study, by night and by day, in the far 



^ 



148 



Napoleon 



^^ away years at the school of Paris where 
^1 his miHtary soul had been shocked by the 
neglect of duties which he saw there. 
Neither can the cause be found in the long 
struggle which marked his early life as a 
soldier, when poverty at home led to sacri- 
fice that brought on him hunger and 
disease. Perseverance, hard work, and 
genius brought him to success through 
those months of suffering. With the 
coming of that success, however, can be 
seen his forge tfulness of other's troubles, 
the development of an overpowering am- 
bition, and the never-ceasing cry for new 
conquests. Each country that fell beneath 
his conquering army only added tp his 
desire for greater power. That desire 
could be gratified in but one way — by 
war whose deadly evil laid waste the 
countries of Europe, filled the homes of 
all France with sorrow and want, and 
finally aroused the mighty rulers of the 
world to a knowledge of the peril which 
Napoleon was pushing upon them. The 
result was that the man who had brought 




The Little Corsican 




fame and prosperity to France saw it 
reduced to poverty and famine and pro- 
strate before a conquering army, and him- 
self, once the ruler of nations, a prisoner 
of war with all his greatness in ruin behind 
him. 



=1^ 



11 




The Famous Prisoner of St. Helena 



WHAT should they do with him? 
Where could they place him so 
that his influence and power would 
be rendered useless ? Place after place was 
discussed and at last St. Helena, an island 
in the mid-Atlantic, over a thousand miles 
distant from the coast of Africa, was 
chosen. 

On the thirtieth of July Napoleon re- 
ceived a note telling him of the decision, 
and that three people would be allowed to 
accompany him. Humiliated and enraged 
by the restrictions which were placed upon 
his actions, Napoleon received this note 
with the greatest indignation, but he was 
helpless. Only one escape remained, and 
that was death. For a short time he seri- 
ously considered taking his life as the 
easiest way to solve his difhculties. He 
gave it up, however, saying: 




"A man ought to live out his destiny; I 
will fulfill mine." 

Napoleon was only forty-six years old 
when he landed on the rocky, barren island 
where he was to pass the remainder of his 
life. Longwood, his new home, was situ- 
ated on a plain, i,8oo feet above the sea, 
and was one 
of the gloom- 
iest, loneliest 
spots on the 
island. The 
house consist- 
ed of only five 
rooms when 
Napoleon 
came, all built '^^^ 
on one floor, 
and without 
respect to comfort or convenience. It 
had to be improved before the exiled em- 
peror could live in it, but even after weeks 
of work had been put on it, the place 
was anything but comfortable. There 
were a few gumwood trees scattered over 




From an etching by Chienon 

Longwood, Napoleon's residence at St. Helena. 



^52 



Napoleon 



the plain, but the greatest part of it was 
i5ir without shade, exposed to the fierce heat 
of the sun and cutting sea winds. 

As soon as Napoleon took up his resi- 
dence at Longwood, a guard was placed 
at the entrance, 600 feet from the house, 
and sentinels surrounded the grounds, 
xVfter nine o'clock Napoleon was not al- 
lowed to leave the house, and these 
guards were drawn closer. Every landing 
on the island was guarded, and sentinels 
were placed on the goat paths which led to 
the sea. No foreign vessel was permitted 
to anchor unless disabled or in great need, 
and then no one of the crew or passengers 
was allowed to come on shore. Even the 
fishing boats of the island were numbered 
and made to report their goings and com- 
ing, and two great British warships sailed 
back and forth, back and forth, day after 
day on either side of the little island. All 
this was done to prevent the escape of one 
man from an island which in itself was so 
constructed by nature as to have made 
such an escape next to impossible. 




The Little Corsican 





The governor of St. Helena, Sir Hudson 
Lowe, was a man who took delight in 
humiliating those under him. With a 
prisoner in his charge, who was feared and 
dreaded by all Europe, this man forgot 
the dignity of his office and treated Na- 
poleon with a 
petty tyranny 
beyond the 
comprehension 

of all generous- ^^ longwood, St. Helena, 1816, "Napoleon." 

hearted people. 

Napoleon, enraged by the governor's 
manner, took the greatest dislike to him 
and refused to see him. This refusal was 
a blow to the conceit of Sir Hudson Lowe, 
and he never forgave Napoleon for it. He 
increased the restrictions on the exiled 
emperor's freedom until life was almost 
unbearable. Not a letter or paper was 
allowed to go into the hands of Napoleon 
without having first been opened and 
examined; all news of his wife and child 
was kept from him ; even a small statue of 
the little King of Rome that had been sent 



^54 



Napoleon 



his exiled father was kept for weeks before 
^r Napoleon received it. At last the islanders 
were forbidden to hold any communication 
with the prisoner, and his physician was 
called to account for talking about any- 
thing except his patient's health. 

So closely was Napoleon guarded on his 
daily rides that he finally gave up going 
out. His health, which had begun to 
break before he left France, was now miser- 
able, and the unhealthful, damp climate 
and lack of exercise added greatly to his 
suffering. But for a man who had led the 
busy, active life that he had, the greatest 
trouble to face in his new home was the lack 
of employment. It was impossible for him 
to be idle, and he resolutely began the 
task of filling the long, empty days with 
some occupation. He wrote essays on 
Csesar, Turenne, and Frederick the Great ; 
composed a clear, concise History of the 
Republic of France; studied English and 
related story after story of his past life to 
his companions, who afterward wrote them 
down and prepared them for the public. 




For five years and a half Napoleon 
worked and suffered, each month, each 
day increasing his weakness and bringing 
the assurance that the death for which he 
longed was not far distant. His sister 
Eliza died late in the year 1820. Wh en the 
news was brought to him he said: 

"You see, EHza has just shown me the 
way. Death, which had forgotten my 




Dreaming and longing for home. Napoleon exiled at St. Helena 
walking along the bluff with his gaze toward his beloved France. 




^ 



family, has begun to strike it. My time 
cannot be far off." 

The same courage, carefulness of detail, 
and thoughtfulness for others that had 
characterized Napoleon's life, marked his 
preparations for death. For two weeks 
before he died he was at work, whenever 

his strength 
would permit, 
planning and 
dictating his 
wishes, so 
that nothing 
should be left 
undone at the 
last. All of 
his personal 
possessions at 

The bed on which Napoleon died at St. Helena. St. Hclcna 

were marked with the names of those who 
were to have them when he should need 
them no more. No one who had served him 
or been his friend was forgotten. To the 
soldiers of the grand army he left half of his 
personal fortune, to be divided according 





to their rank and service ; large amounts to 
be used in improvements were left to differ- 
ent provinces in France. Of the foreigners 
who worked about Longwood he said: 

''Do not let them be forgotten. See 
that they get a few score of napoleons." 

Surrounded by only the few faithful 
friends who had shared his exile, sepa- 
rated by thousands of miles from his home 
and those of his own blood, the great man 
died May 5, 182 1. They buried him near 




^ 



The tomb of Napoleon beneath the trees at St. Helena. 



12 



15^ 



Napoleon 



a shaded spring in a valley of the lonely 
iJ?|f island ; one of the few spots that he loved 
in his exile home. 

The sentinels could be withdrawn; the 
fishing vessels could sail in and out as they 
pleased ; the two great British men-of-war 
could sail slowly back to England; the 
European nations could draw a long breath 
of relief; the grand old army of France 
could weep — the Little Corporal was dead. 




NINETEEN years had passed since the 
death of Napoleon. It was a bitter 
cold day in December, 1840, but 
the streets of Paris had been packed since 
early morning. For months the people 
had been waiting for this day, and now, as 
they watched, a brilliant group of guards 
came down the street. They were greeted 
with but little interest; infantry, cavalry, 
artillery passed in the same manner ; then 
came a magnificent horse and the great 
crowd gave a wild cheer. The horse was 
the counterpart of Marengo, Napoleon's 
old battle horse. Following Marengo were 
the great officers of France, and after them, 
closing the three-mile procession, came 
sixteen beautiful black horses drawing a 
great funeral car. A wave of genuine emo- 
tion, of grief and reverence, swept the multi- 
tude. Napoleon had come back to his own. 




Six months before the French Minister 
of War had astonished the French Chamber 
of Deputies by asking for an appropria- 
tion to bring back the remains of Napo- 
leon, and erect a tomb which should be 
worthy of the general's greatness. Before 
he could finish his speech the great build- 
ing shook with applause. Every feeling 
against the exiled emperor was swept away 
by that enthusiastic cheer. The whole 
gathering was again under the magic influ- 
ence of Napoleon. For over an hour the 
great lawmakers of France forgot all order, 
and cheered, shouted, and talked excitedly. 
When the news swept through the coun- 
try, the people of France received it with 
the same wild enthusiasm. Napoleon had 
never been forgotten ; he had held his place 
in the hearts of his people through all the 
years. 

A magnificent tomb had been erected in 
the church of the Hotel des Invalides, and 
a great multitude had crowded the vast 
building all that December day, awaiting 
the coming of the procession. It was two 







7"^ permanent tomb in France. Interior of the Hotel des Invalides, 
Paris, where Napoleon was buried. 




Napoleon 




The deepest silence held the multitude as 
the king, Louis Philippe, stepped down 
from his throne to meet the little group of 
officials who stood before him with the 
coffin of Napoleon. After a short cere- 
mony the king took the sword of Austerlitz 
which an official handed him and presented 
it to one of Napoleon's old generals, saying : 

" General, I commission you to place the 
emperor's glorious sword on the bier." 

Amid the silence, which was broken only 
by the stifled sobs of some old gray-haired 
soldiers who had fought under the Little 
Corporal, the general placed the sword 
reverently on Napoleon's coffin. Sur- 
rounded with emblems of his past glory, 
guarded by his old soldiers and the people 
of his loved France, Napoleon slept at last 
where he most wished to sleep, for he had 
said when dying alone and in exile : 

" Bury me on the banks of the Seine 
among the people whom I so loved." 




A Chronology of the Life of 
Napoleon Bonaparte 

This table is reprinted in part, by permission, 
from Ida M. Tarbell s "The Life of Napoleon Bona- 
parte," published by McClure, Phillips & Co., New 
York. 

AGE DATE , EVENT 

1769 August !>), Napoleon born at Ajaccio, 

in Corsica. 
9 1778 December 15, Napoleon embarks for 

France with his father. 
9 ^^779 January i, Napoleon enters the College 

of Autun. 
9 1779 April 25, Napoleon enters the Royal 

Military School of Brienne. 

15 1784 October 2j, Napoleon enters the Royal 

Military School of Paris. 

16 1785 September i, Napoleon appointed Sec- 

ond Lieutenant in the artillery Regi- 
ment de la Fere. 

16 1785 October zg, Napoleon leaves the Military 

School of Paris. 

17 1787 February i to October 14, Napoleon on 

leave to Corsica. 
21 1 79 1 /mw6? 2, Napoleon joins the Fourth Regi- 
ment of Artillery at Valence as First 
Lieutenant. 

i6j 




24 1793 



24 1793 



24 



1794 



25 1794 



25 1795 



26 1795 



26 1795 



EVENT 

August JO, Napoleon starts for Corsica 
on leave for three months; leaves 
Corsica May 2, 1792, for France, 
where he has been dismissed for 
absence without leave. 

August JO,. Napoleon reinstated. 

September 14 to June 11, 1793, Napoleon 
in Corsica engaged in revohitionary 
attempts; having declared against 
Paoli, he and his family have to leave 
Corsica. 

October 9 to December 19, Napoleon 
placed in command of part of artil- 
lery of army of Carteaux before 
Toulon; Toulon taken December 19. 

February 16, Napoleon receives his 
commission as General of Brigade. 

August 6 to Augvist 20, Napoleon in 
prison after fall of Robespierre. 

September 14 to Ad arch 29, 1795, 
Napoleon commanding artillery of 
an intended md,ritime expedition to 
Corsica. 

May 10, Napoleon arrives in Paris as 
commander of artillery of the army 
in La Vendee. 

October 5 (13th Vendemiaire, Jour des 
Sections), Napoleon defends the Con- 
vention from the revolt of the Sec- 
tions. 

October j6, Napoleon appointed pro- 
visionally General of Division. 




26 1796 



26 


1796 


2 6 


1796 


to 


to 


28 


1797 



28 


1798 


30 


1799 


30 


1799 


30 


1799 


30 


1800 


31 


1800 


31 


I80I 


32 


1802 



EVENT 

October 26, Napoleon appointed General 
of Division and Commander of the 
Army of the Interior (Paris). 

March 2, Napoleon appointed Com- 
mander - in - Chief of the Army of 
Italy. 

March g, Marries Josephine Tascher de 
la Pagerie. 

March 11, Leaves Paris for Italy. 

First Italian campaign of Napoleon 
against the Austrians and Sardini- 
ans. Battles: Montenotte, Millesimo, 
Dego, Mondovi, Lodi, Mantua, Lo- 
nato, Castiglione, Wurmser, Areola, 
etc.; Treaty of Campo Formio be- 
tween France and Austria, October 
17, 1797. 

Egyptian expedition. Napoleon takes 
Malta, Alexandria, and Cairo. Battles 
of the Pyramids, Nile, and Acre, etc. 

Napoleon returns from Egypt, landing 
in Frejus October 6. 

November g, Napoleon seizes the govern- 
ment of France. 

December 25, Napoleon made First 
Consul. 

May and June, Marengo campaign. 

December 24, x\ttempted assassination 
of Napoleon by infernal machine. 

July ij, Concordat with Rome. 

January 26, Napoleon Vice-President 
of the Italian Republic. 



i66 



Napoleon 



AGE DATE 



^ 



32 


1802 


32 


1802 


33 


1803 


2>2> 


1803 


34-5 


1804 


36 


1805 


36 


1805 


36 


1805 



36 



37 



41 



41 



:8o6 



1807 



37 


1807 


39 


1808 


39 


1809 


40 


1809 


40 


1809 


40 


1810 



I8I0 



I8II 



EVENT 

March 27, Treaty of Amiens between 

France and England. 
August 4, Napoleon made First Consul 

for life. 
War between France and England. 
March 5, Civil Code (later, Code 

Napoleon) decreed. 
May 18, Napoleon made Emperor of 

France; crowned December 2. 
Ulm campaign. 
October 21, Battle of Trafalgar. 
December 2, Defeated Russians and 

Austrians at Austerlitz. 
July J, Confederation of the Rhine 

formed, with Napoleon as the pro- 
tector. 
Jena campaign with Prussia; battle of 

Friedland June 14. 
July 7, Treaty of Tilsit. 
War with Spain. 
War with Austria. Battle of Wagram, 

July 6. 
October 14, Treaty of Vienna. 
December 75, Josephine divorced. 
April I, Marriage of Napoleon to Marie 

Louise, aged 18 years 3 months. 
December ij, Hanseatic towns and all 

northern coast of Germany annexed 

to the French Empire. 
March 20, King of Rome, son of Napo- 
leon, born. 




44 



i8i4 



44 1814 



45 1815 



45 1815 
45-6 1815 



5iyrsi82i 
8 mos. 

1840 



EVENT 

War with Russia; battle of Moskwa or 
Borodino; Napoleon enters Moscow 
September 15; retreats October ig. 

Leipsic campaign against the Russians 
and Prussians; battles: Lutzen and 
Bautzen; Austria joins the allies; 
battle of Dresden; October ig, Napo- 
leon is defeated at .Leipsic. 

Allies invade France ; battles of Montmi- 
rail, CrcL'on, etc. ; Paris falls March jo. 

April 2, The French Senate dethrones 
Napoleon; April 6, Napoleon abdi- 
cates unconditionally; signs the 
treaty giving him Elba for life; April 
20, Napoleon takes leave of the 
Guard at Fontainebleau ; May j, 
Louis XVIII enters Paris; May 4, 
Napoleon lands at Elba. 

February 26, Napoleon leaves Elba for 
France; Ad arch i, lands at Cannes; 
March ig, Louis XVIII. leaves Paris; 
March 20, Napoleon enters Paris. 

June 16, Battle of Ligny and Quatre 
Bras; June 18, battle of Waterloo. 

July ij, Napoleon surrenders to the 
English ; August 8, sails for St. Helena ; 
October ij, arrives at St. Helena. 

May ^, Napoleon dies, 5.45 p. m.; May 
8, buried at St. Helena. 

October 75, Body of Napoleon taken to 
France ; December i^, buried in Hotel 
des Invalides. 



\^ 




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Scribner's Sons. 

Fremaux, P. With Napoleon at St. Helena. Trans- 
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Lane 

Gibes, Montgomery B. Military Career of Napo^ 
leon. Akron, O. : Saalfield Publishing Co 

Hazlitt, Life of Napoleon. Philadelphia: J. B. 
Lippincott & Co. 

Headly, J. T. Napoleon and his Marshals. New 
York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 

JuNOT, Madame. Memoirs of Napoleon. New York: 
Charles Scribner's Sons. 

Morris, Wm. O. C. The French Revolution and 
First E'inpire. (Epochs of Modern History.) 

Morris Wm. O. C. Napoleon, Warrior and Ruler. 
(Epochs of Modern History.) 

RosEBERRY, LoRD. Napoleon, The Last Phase. 
New York: Harper & Brothers. 

Napoleon Bonaparte. (4 Vols.) 
The Century Co. 

A Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. 
McClure, Phillips & Co. 

Tolstoi, Count Leo M. Napoleon's Russian Cam- 
paign, Power and Liberty, and Long Exile. 
New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co. 

168 



Sloane, W. M. 
New York: 

Tarbell, Ida M. 

New York: 



^vj 



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